#Power of Connectivity the Revolution of IoT with this Free Course
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The Internet of Things (IoT): A Revolution in Connectivity
The world as we know it is rapidly transforming thanks to the Internet of Things ( IoT ). IoT is paving the way for a new era of interconnectedness, revolutionizing the way we interact with technology, and reshaping various aspects of our daily lives. In this article, we’ll delve into the concept of IoT, its diverse applications, and the significance of understanding this transformative technology. We’ll also introduce a fundamental course that will help individuals explore IoT in-depth.
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Unlocking Hyper-Personalized Sales Growth with AI-Powered Voice Commerce: Strategies, Challenges, and Real-World Success.
In the rapidly evolving digital marketplace, how consumers shop is undergoing a revolutionary shift. Voice commerce, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), is no longer a distant vision but a dynamic force reshaping sales strategies across industries today. With voice-activated devices becoming ubiquitous, from smart speakers and mobile phones to connected cars and home appliances, businesses have an unprecedented opportunity to engage customers through personalized, hands-free shopping experiences.
For marketers looking to sharpen their skills, enrolling in digital marketing courses in Mumbai can provide essential insights on integrating AI technologies like voice commerce into effective campaigns. This article explores how companies can harness AI-driven voice commerce to unlock hyper-personalized sales growth. We delve into the latest market trends, cutting-edge technologies, practical tactics, challenges to anticipate, and inspiring real-world examples that marketers can apply to stay ahead in this fast-growing space.
For professionals seeking hands-on knowledge, an SEO course nearby is invaluable for mastering voice search optimization techniques essential in this domain.
The Voice Commerce Revolution: From Convenience to Competitive Advantage
Voice commerce has evolved dramatically over the past decade. What began as simple voice commands to set reminders or play music has transformed into sophisticated AI-powered shopping ecosystems. Early voice assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa have matured to understand natural language, context, and user preferences, enabling seamless, conversational interactions that mimic human dialogue.
This evolution is fueled by breakthroughs in natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning, which allow voice assistants to interpret complex queries and deliver personalized responses. The adoption of smart speakers and voice-enabled devices is soaring, voice commerce sales are projected to grow from $116.83 billion in 2024 to $151.39 billion in 2025, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 30%. Moreover, forecasts suggest the AI voice commerce market will sustain a 25% CAGR through 2033, driven by growing consumer comfort and technological advances.
Consumers increasingly prefer voice for its convenience, speed, and natural interaction style. For example, 84% of drivers favor voice assistants in their cars over mobile apps, and 94% use them to order food. This shift signals a critical inflection point where voice commerce is transitioning from novelty to necessity for brands aiming to capture customer attention and loyalty.
Aspiring marketers can benefit from a social media marketing course in Mumbai to learn how to integrate voice commerce strategies with broader digital campaigns across platforms.
How AI and NLP Power Voice Commerce
At the heart of voice commerce lies AI technology that interprets spoken language, understands intent, and personalizes responses. Natural language processing enables voice assistants to parse conversational queries rather than simple keywords, making interactions feel intuitive and human-like.
Machine learning algorithms analyze user behavior and preferences over time, allowing voice assistants to offer tailored product recommendations, promotions, and content. Integration with Internet of Things (IoT) devices extends voice commerce beyond standalone speakers to smart fridges, cars, and wearables, creating a seamless omnichannel experience.
This AI-driven personalization is key to converting casual voice interactions into sales by delivering the right product suggestions at the right moment, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Professionals interested in mastering these technologies should consider digital marketing courses in Mumbai that cover AI and conversational commerce fundamentals.
Cutting-Edge Features Driving Voice Commerce Growth
Contextual Personalization: Leveraging historical user data and real-time context to recommend products and offers that resonate personally.
Voice Shopping Assistants: AI guides customers through discovery, comparison, and checkout processes with natural, conversational dialogue.
IoT Integration: Voice commands enable effortless reordering or new product discovery via connected home devices, vehicles, and wearables.
Multi-Channel Voice Ecosystems: Voice commerce is expanding beyond smart speakers to mobile apps, cars, and social platforms, ensuring customers can shop wherever they are.
Recent data confirms that 50% of consumers have made purchases via voice assistants, with 80% expressing satisfaction with the experience; 71% use voice to research products before buying, underscoring voice commerce’s critical role in the purchase journey.
To optimize content for voice search, marketers should seek an SEO course nearby to learn how to tailor messaging for conversational queries effectively.
Overcoming Challenges: What Every Brand Must Know
Accuracy and Understanding: Misinterpretation of voice commands can frustrate customers. Continuous AI training and user feedback loops are essential to improve recognition, especially for complex orders or customization.
Privacy and Security: Voice commerce involves sensitive personal data. Brands must ensure robust data protection practices and transparent privacy policies to build trust.
Integration Complexity: Seamless syncing with existing e-commerce platforms, loyalty programs, and CRM systems requires careful planning and technical investment.
User Adoption and Education: Some consumers remain hesitant to shop via voice due to unfamiliarity or perceived limitations. Clear communication of benefits and user-friendly design can encourage adoption.
Addressing these challenges transparently and proactively can turn potential obstacles into competitive advantages. Marketing professionals can deepen their understanding of these issues by enrolling in digital marketing courses in Mumbai, which often cover privacy and security considerations in emerging technologies.
Advanced Strategies for Hyper-Personalized Voice Commerce Success
Deep AI-Driven Personalization: Use AI analytics to dissect voice interaction patterns and preferences, enabling dynamic product recommendations, tailored promotions, and adaptive conversational flows that feel uniquely relevant.
Conversational Content Optimization: Voice queries tend to be longer and more natural than typed searches. Brands should craft product descriptions, FAQs, and marketing messages in conversational language and anticipate question-based queries.
Multi-Modal Experiences: Combine voice commands with visual interfaces on smart displays or mobile apps to enrich the journey. For example, a voice search can trigger detailed product images, reviews, and comparison charts on screen.
Voice-Enabled Loyalty Programs: Integrate loyalty rewards directly into voice commerce interactions, allowing customers to check points, redeem offers, and receive personalized incentives hands-free.
AI Chatbots for Voice Support: Deploy voice-enabled chatbots to handle customer service inquiries, track orders, and troubleshoot issues, ensuring a seamless end-to-end experience.
Omnichannel Voice Integration: Extend voice commerce beyond smart speakers to cars, wearables, and social media platforms to meet customers across their daily touchpoints.
For marketers aiming to implement these cutting-edge tactics, joining a social media marketing course in Mumbai can provide practical insights on integrating voice commerce with social platforms and influencer campaigns.
The Human Touch: Content, Storytelling, and Building Community
Technology may power voice commerce, but human connection drives engagement and trust. Brands that weave authentic storytelling into voice interactions create emotional resonance that fosters loyalty.
Creating a voice commerce community amplifies this effect. Encouraging user-generated content (UGC) such as voice reviews and testimonials shared through voice platforms builds social proof. Offering voice-activated exclusive content, early product access, or interactive experiences deepens customer relationships.
Influencer partnerships take this further by integrating familiar voices into the shopping experience. For instance, a beauty brand might collaborate with an influencer to develop a voice assistant persona offering personalized tips and product suggestions, enhancing authenticity and trust.
Marketers can enhance their skills in these areas by enrolling in digital marketing courses in Mumbai that emphasize content marketing and community building.
Measuring Voice Commerce Performance: Metrics That Matter
Conversion Rates from Voice Interactions: Track the percentage of voice-initiated sessions resulting in purchases.
Average Order Value (AOV): Monitor if voice shoppers spend more on average compared to other channels.
Customer Satisfaction Scores: Collect feedback on voice shopping ease and enjoyment to identify pain points.
Engagement and Retention: Analyze repeat voice purchases and loyalty program participation for long-term value.
Voice Query Analytics: Examine common voice search patterns and questions to refine content and inventory.
Advanced AI analytics platforms can process vast voice data sets, uncovering customer sentiment and emerging trends that inform marketing and product decisions.
Marketers looking to sharpen their data skills should consider an SEO course nearby that includes analytics training tailored to voice and AI-powered commerce.
Domino’s Pizza: A Voice Commerce Success Story
Domino’s Pizza exemplifies how integrating AI-powered voice commerce drives hyper-personalized sales growth. Facing stiff competition in quick-service restaurants, Domino’s was an early adopter of voice ordering across Alexa, Google Assistant, and their own voice system.
Starting with simple reordering commands, Domino’s leveraged AI to remember customer preferences, past orders, and location-based promotions, creating a personalized experience that boosted order frequency and satisfaction.
Their voice commerce system also integrated with the loyalty program, allowing customers to earn and redeem rewards effortlessly via voice. This combination of convenience and personalization significantly increased voice-initiated sales and overall revenue.
Challenges like ensuring order accuracy and managing complex customizations were overcome through continuous AI refinement and customer feedback incorporation. Domino’s journey highlights how technology combined with customer-centric strategy delivers lasting value and brand leadership.
This case study is often referenced in social media marketing courses in Mumbai as an example of successful omnichannel voice commerce integration.
Practical Tips for Marketers Ready to Harness Voice Commerce
Optimize for Voice Search: Use natural language, question-based keywords in product descriptions and content.
Invest in AI Personalization Tools: Analyze voice data to tailor recommendations and conversational flows dynamically.
Develop Conversational Content: Craft FAQs, product info, and marketing messages that sound natural when spoken.
Integrate Loyalty Programs with Voice: Make rewards and offers accessible via voice commands to encourage repeat purchases.
Expand Across Devices: Support voice commerce on smart speakers, mobile apps, vehicles, and IoT devices.
Encourage Voice Reviews and UGC: Motivate customers to share voice feedback and testimonials for social proof.
Monitor Analytics Closely: Use voice commerce metrics to refine strategies and enhance customer experiences continuously.
Collaborate with Influencers: Partner with trusted voices to create authentic, engaging voice shopping experiences.
For marketers seeking structured learning, digital marketing courses in Mumbai often cover these practical tactics, while an SEO course nearby can deepen expertise in voice search optimization and analytics. Additionally, a social media marketing course in Mumbai can help leverage influencer partnerships and community engagement effectively.
Conclusion
AI-powered voice commerce is transforming how consumers discover, engage with, and purchase products. With explosive growth driven by AI advances and changing consumer behaviors, voice commerce offers immense opportunities for businesses ready to innovate.
By embracing the latest voice commerce technologies, adopting advanced personalization tactics, integrating storytelling and community building, and measuring success with data-driven insights, brands can unlock hyper-personalized sales growth that differentiates them in a competitive landscape.
Domino’s Pizza’s success illustrates the power of combining technology with a customer-first approach. For marketers, the message is clear: invest in voice commerce now to meet tomorrow’s consumers where they are, speaking naturally, expecting seamless, personalized experiences, and ready to buy.
Enrolling in digital marketing courses in Mumbai, an SEO course nearby, or a social media marketing course in Mumbai can equip marketing professionals with the skills necessary to lead in this transformative space.
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Workflow Automation Trends 2025: Are You Ready for the Next Leap?
Blog Description: The Future is Automated: Top Workflow Automation Trends to Watch in 2025
Are You Keeping Pace with the Workflow Automation Revolution?
In 2025, workflow automation is no longer a luxury—it's a necessity. The rapid evolution of digital transformation, AI-driven automation, and intelligent workflows reshapes how businesses operate. Companies that fail to adapt risk falling behind in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Modern workflow automation transcends mere task automation; it's about integrating intelligent systems that can learn, adapt, and make decisions in real-time. These systems enhance efficiency, reduce errors, and free up human resources for more strategic initiatives. As noted by Applied Innovation, "Automated workflows bring order to the chaos and allow your team to focus on what matters most: growing your business".
Key trends such as hyperautomation, low-code/no-code platforms, and AI-powered decision-making are at the forefront of this transformation. Embracing these trends is crucial for businesses aiming to enhance productivity, ensure compliance, and deliver superior customer experiences. So, is your organization ready to harness the power of workflow automation and stay ahead in 2025? Let's explore the transformative trends that are setting new standards in business operations.
The top trending automation tools are as follows:
1. AI-Driven Decision Making Takes the Lead
In 2025, automation isn’t just executing tasks—it’s making decisions. With advancements in AI and machine learning, workflow automation tools now analyze patterns, predict outcomes, and even choose the best course of action. Whether it’s approving invoices or routing customer queries, systems are becoming self-learning entities.
2. Hyperautomation Becomes Standard
Hyperautomation goes beyond individual task automation—it's about automating everything that can be automated. In 2025, businesses are blending robotic process automation (RPA), AI, and low-code/no-code tools into one massive automation engine.
Why it matters: It allows seamless end-to-end automation across departments like HR, finance, and operations.
3. Human-in-the-loop (HITL) Automation Balances Control and Efficiency
Businesses are realizing the value of blending automation with human oversight. HITL workflows enable bots to escalate uncertain decisions to humans, maintaining accuracy and accountability—especially in sensitive processes like compliance or customer queries
4. Voice-Activated Workflow Automation
Move over typing—2025 welcomes voice-activated automation. With smart assistants like Alexa for Business and voice-integrated SaaS platforms, tasks can be triggered via voice commands. Think about scheduling meetings, sending reports.
5. Autonomous Workflows Powered by IoT
IoT-connected devices are now automating physical workflows in real time. Smart sensors, wearables, and edge devices are triggering automated processes based on environmental or usage data.
FAQs About Workflow Automation in 2025
Q1. What industries benefit most from workflow automation in 2025?
Virtually all industries can benefit, but top adopters include retail, healthcare, e-commerce, logistics, fintech, and IT services.
Q2. Are low-code/no-code platforms still relevant?
Absolutely. They’re more powerful now, enabling non-tech teams to build complex automation quickly with AI-assisted recommendations.
Q3. Can automation replace all human jobs?
Not quite. Automation handles repetitive tasks, but creativity, empathy, and strategic thinking remain human strengths. The future is about collaboration, not replacement.
Q4. How secure are these automation tools?
Leading platforms now prioritize security and compliance, offering features like end-to-end encryption, multi-factor authentication, and secure data flows.
Q5. What’s the best way to start automation in a small business?
Start simple: Automate daily repetitive tasks like email responses, appointment scheduling, and invoice generation. Use tools like Zapier, Make, or Microsoft Power Automate to scale gradually.
Conclusion:
2025 is all about smart, scalable, and secure automation. Whether you're a startup or a global enterprise, the key is to stay agile, experiment often, and keep the human touch where it matters most.
So get ready to automate your way into the future...
#marketing technology#business growth#automation workflow#automation trends#project management#business strategies#artificial intelligence#marketing services#adobe workfront#salesforce#Aprimo services
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Technology: Shaping the Future of Humanity
How Technology Transforms Everyday Life
Technology touches every part of our lives. From waking up to alarms on smartphones to using GPS for directions, it simplifies tasks. Today, 85% of people rely on tech tools for work, communication, and entertainment. Innovations like AI, IoT, and automation redefine how we live, making routines faster and smarter.
Technology in Communication: Breaking Barriers
Remember waiting days for letters? Now, video calls connect continents in seconds. Social media, messaging apps, and email keep us linked 24/7. Platforms like Zoom and WhatsApp show how technology erases distance, helping families and businesses stay close.

Healthcare Revolution Through Technology
Hospitals now use robots for surgeries and apps for patient care. Wearable devices track heart rates, while AI predicts diseases early. Telemedicine lets doctors consult patients remotely, saving time and lives. Technology makes healthcare faster, accurate, and accessible to all.
Education and Technology: Learning Without Limits
Online courses and virtual classrooms break traditional education barriers. Apps like Khan Academy or Coursera offer free lessons globally. Interactive tools like VR let students “visit” historical sites or dissect frogs digitally. Technology makes learning flexible, fun, and inclusive.
Smart Homes: Technology at Your Fingertips
Voice assistants like Alexa control lights, locks, and thermostats. Smart fridges order groceries, and security cameras alert phones about visitors. These gadgets save energy, boost safety, and add convenience, proving technology’s role in modern living.
The Future of Technology: What’s Next?
Self-driving cars, quantum computing, and AI-driven cities are no longer sci-fi. Experts predict tech will tackle climate change, improve food production, and enhance space travel. Innovations like 5G and blockchain will reshape industries, creating jobs we can’t imagine today.
Conclusion: Embrace Technology for a Better Tomorrow
Technology isn’t just gadgets—it’s a lifeline. It solves problems, connects hearts, and builds dreams. Staying updated with trends ensures we grow with it. Let’s harness its power wisely to create a brighter, smarter future.
FAQs About Technology
1. How does technology affect jobs? Tech creates new roles (e.g., AI trainers) while automating repetitive tasks. Learning new skills keeps you relevant.
2. Are there risks to relying on technology? Yes, like privacy issues or addiction. Setting screen limits and using secure apps reduces risks.
3. What’s the next big thing in technology? AI advancements, green tech, and brain-computer interfaces could dominate the next decade.
4. Can technology help the environment? Solar panels, electric cars, and AI for pollution tracking show tech’s role in sustainability.
5. How do I stay safe online? Use strong passwords, avoid suspicious links, and update software regularly.
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Impact of 5G Technology on Computing and Beyond

5G technology is changing the world of digital by bringing unparalleled speeds, connectivity, and efficiency. Understanding the impact of 5G technology on computing and beyond at TCCI Computer Coaching Institute forms a critical aspect of what is necessary to lead through the era of technology. This is a closer look into how 5G impacts computing and transforms industries beyond.
Improved Computing Performance
5G's high-speed connectivity reduces latency to as low as 1 millisecond, ensuring faster data transfer. This enables real-time cloud computing and accelerates applications like AI, machine learning, and big data processing.
Boosting IoT Development
With 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT) can flourish. Billions of devices, ranging from smart home appliances to industrial machinery, can easily connect and share data. This advancement opens up innovation opportunities in automation, healthcare, and smart cities.
Revolutionizing Edge Computing
5G complements edge computing by providing faster communication between devices and servers. Industries such as automotive, robotics, and finance benefit from improved efficiency and reduced bandwidth usage by processing data closer to its source.
Revolutionizing Remote Work and Education
The network capabilities of 5G are enhanced to make remote work and online education more effective. High-quality video streaming, virtual reality learning, and interactive tools become accessible to more people, fostering global collaboration.
Entertainment and Gaming Evolution
5G opens up new avenues in entertainment. Lag-free gaming is enjoyed by gamers, and AR and VR become mainstream. Higher bandwidth also supports 4K and 8K video streaming without interruption.
Healthcare Revolution
Telemedicine and remote surgeries become practical with 5G. Doctors can use AR and VR tools for better diagnosis, and wearable health devices provide real-time data, improving patient care.
Future Skills for a 5G-Powered World
TCCI Computer Coaching Institute provides you with all the skills to make use of the 5G technology. Its specialized courses in cloud computing, AI, IoT, and mobile app development prepare you for this emerging landscape.
The impact of 5G technology is monumental, shaping the future of computing and beyond. Whether it’s improving connectivity or enabling cutting-edge innovations, 5G is a game-changer. Stay ahead of the curve by exploring TCCI’s tech-focused courses designed for the future.
Call now on +91 9825618292
Get information from https://tccicomputercoaching.wordpress.com/
#TCCI Computer Coaching Institute#Best Computer Classes in Iskon-Ambli Ahmedabad#Impacts of 5G on computing#Computer Training Institutes near me in Ahmedabad#IT Training Courses in Ahmedabad
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This Stock is the Pick-axe to the Cloud Gold Rush
Date Published: 2017-06-05 Written by Ophir Gottlieb * This is a snippet from a CML Pro dossier originally published on 6-3-2017. LEDE Arista Networks Inc (NYSE:ANET) is one of our all-time favorite Top Picks in the cloud theme, and is rising to all time highs. Here is the stock chart:
We do believe, as the Top Pick dossier refers to it, that Arista Networks is the Pick-axe to Cloud Gold Rush. Arista Networks Inc was added to Top Picks on 22-Nov-16 for $94.50. As of today it is trading at $152.26, up 61.1% in six-months.
Ticker Date Added Price Added Return ANET 11-22-2016 $94.50 61.12%
Further, on 4-5-107 we penned Arista Networks: The Opportunity is Here. The stock price was $134 at the time of that dossier, so Arista Inc stock is up more than 13% in just the two-months since we published that highlight. STORY & UPDATE Quickly, the story behind Arista Inc: Of all the revolutionary trends that are coming our way that we look to, from artificial intelligence, machine learning, genomics, self-driving cars, the Internet of Things (IoT), streaming video on Demand (SVOD), and the rest — the enterprise cloud realm may be the largest of them all. WHY THE CLOUD? Of all the revolutionary trends that are coming our way that we look to, from artificial intelligence, machine learning, genomics, self-driving cars, the Internet of Things (IoT), streaming video on Demand (SVOD), and the rest — the enterprise cloud realm may be the largest of them all. The cloud is, generally speaking, just a cluster of computers and hardware sharing resources to power the Internet, apps, video, IoT and anything else that is connected and has data. I always search for the best way to demonstrate the explosion that is coming in data. I like charts, and I like stats, but it’s hard to really convey the astounding growth in data we are about to see. So here’s a chart, and then I’ll try my best with a specific example:
So that’s just mobile and it shows the growth in traffic increasing 1,000% in six years. But here’s how that translates into data. In 2012 the Library of Congress estimated that all printed, audio, and video material came in at 3 to 20 petabytes. That means that one exabyte could hold a hundred thousand times the printed, audio and video material, or 500 to 3000 times all content of the Library of Congress. By 2021, global traffic alone will generate 49 exabytes… per month. That means that data that is the size of 14,700,000% of all the printed, audio and video material of all-time will be generated in a month on just mobile devices. Yeah, that’s just mobile and every month. And if we take that even further out, to say, 2025, the numbers reach billions of percent a day. The cloud is going to be a huge deal. Here is a chart of that growth:
ARISTA The old world where Cisco Systems built a wonderful empire was based on dedicated network systems — a fancy way of saying that Cisco provided all of the hardware and guts to the switches (and routers). But, Cisco has secularly lost market share in switching, today at 53%, versus 70% in 2010. The lost business has gone mainly in the Data Center switching side, where Arista Networks inc and do-it-yourself (DIY) white-label solutions have become more prevalent. First, the image we always reference of market share trends:
But the trend — that is, moving to white-label solutions, has been under reported by the media. Facebook has created a gigantic cloud and has focused on something called the Open Compute Project. Microsoft and Google have joined the Project. These companies are looking to free themselves from the shackles and expenses of the “old way.” Arista Networks Inc is aware of the change — in fact, it has been a part of the change — even the catalyst to the change. Arista’s strategy, which has been to take a more software-centric approach of networking, called SDN, is working. The company’s hardware is strong, it has exposure to the cloud platforms and generally appears to be more agile than Cisco. The Arista Inc story is wonderful, full of opportunity and risk, and we highly encourage a read of the Top Pick dossier: Arista Networks is the Pick-axe to Cloud Gold Rush. But now, onto a critical update that pushed the stock price to fresh all-time highs on Friday. LEGAL FIGHT Arista Inc and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) have been embroiled in one of the most contentious intellectual property battles technology has ever seen. While Uber and Alphabet Inc's Waymo have gotten the juicy headlines, the guts of the cloud world have had their own heavyweight bout. We wrote extensively about the risks in our dossier Arista Risk Must Be Examined. Here's a quick primer before we get to the update: Cisco has filed a lawsuit claiming that Arista has infringed upon its patents and the accusation is big one. Arista was founded by ex-Cisco employees and the lawsuit claims that essentially all of Arista’s success is a patent rip-off. To restate clearly, this is not a small off on the side lawsuit, this is a lawsuit of enormous proportions with respect to the accusations. In fact, for a moment, the International Trade Commission placed an import ban and cease and desist order covering all Arista (ANET) products. The ITC determined that Arista willfully and intentionally infringed three Cisco patents covering core, Cisco-proprietary network functionality. For Arista’s customers and partners, the cease and desist order blocks the marketing, sale or distribution of all inventory of imported infringing products. It also means that Arista is unable to honor the service and warranty contracts for any infringing products sold after the ITC’s ruling date [of] June 23. For Arista’s suppliers, the ITC orders mean that Arista cannot import parts or components to manufacture infringing products in the United States. Now, all that ended recently when Arista Networks [] got a vote of approval from U.S. customs authorities with its newest versions of its products. But, the risk isn’t gone. While some will say Cisco is throwing up a last ditch effort to protect its technology which, as we saw in the chart at the top, is in full blown competitive free fall, others will say this is a legitimate case of intellectual property theft. UPDATE It appears that Arista Inc has yet again won the battle of old versus new. Here it is, straight from one of our favorite all-time journalists, Barron's Tiernan Ray:
[T]he U.S Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board yesterday issued a decision finding for Arista’s claims that another of Cisco Systems (CSCO) patents over which Cisco was suing Arista is "unpatentable." It is the second time in a week the company received a favorable judgment from the Patent board, the prior one having been from the same case. Source: BARRON'S
The Patent board wrote: "We determine that Petitioner (Arista) has met its burden of showing, by a preponderance of the evidence, that all of the claims for which trial was instituted are unpatentable." We'll save the technical details and get to the conclusion, which is that, for now, the patent fight is finally over and Arista Inc will not have to turn on its manufacturing plant in the United States, which would have taken a bite out of gross margins. We do note that it is quite possible that Cisco Systems Inc is not done yet, the company has been relentless in trying to defend itself and has used aggravated language declaring that Arista has blatantly infringed on its copyrighted command-line interface terms, noting direct copy-and-paste scenarios in which the firm neglected to fix Cisco’s typos. Of course, Arista has argued that the commands aren’t protected by copyright, suggesting Cisco is simply trying to thwart growth of the upcoming firm. It looks like Arista Inc was right. WHAT NOW We like Arista Inc long-term, but the price is high and we don't believe any extra emphasis should be given to the company just because of this ruling. As always, in this toppy market we do see the potential for a correction, but when we look out 3-7 years, we see Arista Inc continuing to take down Cisco Systems Inc moat and growing rapidly into the cloud. OPTION TRADERS For you option traders we offer this read: Options and the Cloud Revolution A classic example demonstrates that four weekly options does not equal one monthly option. The author has no position in Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) at the time of this writing. WHY THIS MATTERS It's finding the technology gems, like Arista, that can turn into the 'next Google,' or 'next Apple,' where we have to get ahead of the curve. This is what CML Pro does. Each company in our 'Top Picks' has been selected as a future crown jewel of technology. Market correction or not, recession or not, the growth in these areas is a near certainty. The precious few thematic top picks for 2017, research dossiers, and alerts are available for a limited time at an 80% discount for $19/mo. Join Us: Discover the undiscovered companies that will power technology's future. Thanks for reading, friends. Legal The information contained on this site is provided for general informational purposes, as a convenience to the readers. The materials are not a substitute for obtaining professional advice from a qualified person, firm or corporation. Consult the appropriate professional advisor for more complete and current information. Capital Market Laboratories (“The Company”) does not engage in rendering any legal or professional services by placing these general informational materials on this website. The Company specifically disclaims any liability, whether based in contract, tort, strict liability or otherwise, for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or special damages arising out of or in any way connected with access to or use of the site, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages, including liability in connection with mistakes or omissions in, or delays in transmission of, information to or from the user, interruptions in telecommunications connections to the site or viruses. The Company makes no representations or warranties about the accuracy or completeness of the information contained on this website. Any links provided to other server sites are offered as a matter of convenience and in no way are meant to imply that The Company endorses, sponsors, promotes or is affiliated with the owners of or participants in those sites, or endorse any information contained on those sites, unless expressly stated.
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Top10 latest Technology to learn In 2020
The speed with which technology is progressing is faster than ever. We are now in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, and companies and individuals have to be prepared to remain relevant.
Technology is changing day by day, and this change is affecting our lifestyle in equal measure. All aspects of our daily lives have been affected, including sports, health, food, and education. Online transactions are becoming the norm with digital currencies such as cryptocurrency slowly making its way into our lives. The health department has also been mostly affected by diagnosis and treatment, to become more accurate.
Without an understanding of the major trends in technology, individuals and companies will not be able to properly prepare and seize opportunities.
change is the only constant. This also applies to your professional life. Up-skilling is a necessity in itself nowadays, the reason is very simple, technology is developing very fast. I have listed the top 10 trending technologies, which are expected to gain a large market in 2020.
So, let’s take a New Year’s resolution to master any of the techniques below:
Artificial Intelligence
Blockchain
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
Cognitive Cloud Computing
Angular and React
DevOps
Internet of Things (IoT)
Intelligent Apps (I – Apps)
Big Data
RPA (Robotic Process Automation)
1) Artificial Intelligence (AI)
One of the most transformational technological advances of our time is Artificial Intelligence (AI). Companies around the world are harnessing the power of AI to enhance their customer experience and restructure their business processes.
In 2020, most people will get used to working together with AI. Designing and deploying your AI-based systems will remain expensive; Therefore, companies will rely on providers of AI-as-a-service platforms.
Artificial Intelligence Training – Explore the curriculum of master air and deep learning.
AI existed before the birth of the Internet, but now data processing and compute power backbones have become very strong, so that an entire technology can be created automatically.
Artificial Intelligence is everywhere today, from your mobile to your driving car to your house to your financial establishment.
This is the new normal, nothing the world can do without.
2 ) Blockchain technology
Blockchain is a digital ledger that is used to record transactions that are very secure due to their encrypted and decentralized nature. Despite receiving criticism, investment in technology is likely to bear fruit in 2020.
More companies are willing to join the fold, and it will make you excited about how this technology unfolds.
Blockchain Training – Explore courses in Master Blockchain.
This is the technology that powers bitcoins, a whole new parallel currency that has taken over the world.
Blockchain as a technology is reaching everywhere possibilities in everything from the health department to elections to law enforcement.
Understand how blockchain works and how secure your career is because it is technology-based!
3) Augmented reality and virtual reality
Augmented Reality (AR), on the other hand, super limits digital objects on the real world through a smartphone screen. On the other hand, mixed reality (MR) is an extension of AR. Here anyone can connect with digital gadgets placed in the real world.
Virtual reality (VR) provides a fully digitally immersive experience, where you use those headsets in a computer-generated world that blend the real world.
Virtual is real! VR and AR, twin technologies that let you experience things in the virtual that are very close to the real, are being used today by businesses of all shapes and sizes. But the underlying technology may be quite hard to understand.
In the Medical field doctors use AR technology to practice surgery in a controlled method.
VR, on the other word, make a new system for gaming and marketing.
If you want to ride the virtual wave, whatever interests you, AR and VR skills must be there!
4) Cognitive Cloud Computing
Cognitive computing is closely related to artificial intelligence and its many prevalent techniques (image recognition, pattern recognition, machine learning, natural language processing, and so on). It differs from traditional data analytics, due to its agile, interactive, and contextual properties.
AWS Solution Architect Training – Explore the curriculum of Master AWS.
The cognitive cloud is an expanded ecosystem of traditional cloud and cognitive computing.
Because of this, you can build cognitive computing applications and reach people through cloud deployment. Cognitive computing is considered the next major development in the IT industry.
It interacts in human language and helps experts make better decisions by understanding the complexities of Big Data. Its market area is generated revenue of $ 13.8 billion by 2020 and is one of the top 10 trending technologies in this year.
Big brands like Google, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Wipro have started upgrading this next-generation technology to speed up for the upcoming market.
5) Angular and Reaction
AngularJS is a structural framework for developing dynamic web apps, while React is a JavaScript library that allows you to create UI components. Angular JS is based on MVC (Model View Controller) while React is based on Virtual DOM.
Angular and Feedback Training – Explore master angular and feedback courses.
Okay, now we are coming to Core Tech.
Angular and React are JavaScript-based frameworks for building modern web applications.
Using React and Angular can create a highly modular web app. Therefore, you do not have to go through many changes in your codebase to add a new feature.
Angular and React allows you to create a native mobile application with the same JS, CSS, and HTML knowledge.
The best part – an open-source library with highly active community support.
6) DevOps
According to Wikipedia, DevOps is a model of practices that help to combine software development (Dev) and information-technology operations (OPS) which aim to short the system development life cycle and give continuous delivery with best software quality.
DevOps Training – Explore the curriculum for the master DevOps tool.
It is odd in the list. It is a methodology, not a technique.
DevOps is a methodology which ensures that development and operations both go hand-to-hand. The DevOps cycle is depicted as an infinite loop representing the integration of developers and operation teams:
.Automatic structure,
workflow and
continuously measuring application performance
7) Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things is the system of interconnected devices like mechanical and digital machines which provide unique identifiers and which able to transfer data to over a network without human-to-human-to-computer interaction.
Another discussion that is no longer a discussion, but has become a complete technology ecosystem in itself.
IoT is essentially connecting multiple devices and creating a virtual network, where everything works radically through a single monitoring center.
IoT is a vast network of connected devices – all of which collect data and share data about how they are used and the environment in which they operate.
It includes everything you have:
mobile phone,
fridge,
The washing machine is a good example you can think of.
With IoT, we can customize smart cities:
Traffic system,
efficient waste management and
Energy use
So in addition to traffic, start thinking of some new excuses for coming late for office.
8) Intelligent Apps (I – Apps)
Intelligent apps are applications that derive real-time and historical data from user interactions and other sources to make suggestions and predictions. It provides a personalized and adaptive user experience; Data analytics and machine learning are core components of intelligent apps. The i-apps are listing the software which written for mobile devices depend on artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, which are aimed at making everyday tasks easier.
This includes tasks like organizing and prioritizing email, holding meetings, talking, talking, content and more. Some familiar examples of i-apps are chatbot and virtual assistant.
In today these applications getting more popularity, they will come with promises of various jobs and better salaries.
9) Big Data
Big data is a term that describes large amounts of data – both structured and unstructured – that connect business on a day-to-day basis. But this does not amount to significant data. This is what organizations do with data that matters.
Big Data and Hadoop Training – Explore the curriculum for Master Big Data and Hadoop.
Big data refers to problems that are associated with the processing and storage of different types of data. Today most companies rely on big data analytics to get big information about themselves:
customers,
Product research,
Marketing initiatives and many more.
To your surprise, big data-inspired Germany to win the World Cup.
Hadoop and Spark are the best well-known frameworks for solving big data problems.
If you already have basic knowledge of Big Data, it’s great! If not, this is the right time to start.
10) RPA (Robotic Process Automation)
Robots handle is the repetitive business processes using RPA task robots, parse, , perform tasks , and trigger error-free which responses 24/7
RPA Training – Explore the curriculum of Master RPA.
Typically, any desk job in any industry includes tasks that are repetitive in nature and can be automated.
RPA allows you to automate every routine which you need and repetitive tasks.
You must write any code to automate repetitive tasks.
In 2020, the practice of bots and machine learning is only skyrocketing, which means RPA will become an invaluable skill.
Choose one or all, either of them to make a happy career in 2020!
With this we come to the end of the article “Top 10 Trending Technologies”. I hope this was informative enough to get you started in 2020.
from WordPress https://www.fact2know.com/top10-latest-technology-to-learn-in-2020/
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Libertarian on lockdown? Privacy minded or paranoid?
Security is more front of mind today than ever before. If it’s not a company vacuuming up your data or nation states trying to hack your email, it’s your own “opsec” that needs a refresh.
For this holiday season, we have more than a dozen gift ideas — from practical gadgets that will make it harder for spies to listen in, to data-saving tips that will keep your information safe — without breaking the bank.
Passphrase dice
Coming up with passwords that are easy to remember is difficult. The better way is to use a longer and more memorable passphrase instead. It’s as easy as rolling a handful of dice and using word lists! You can pick up a five-pack of dice to generate random passphrases for just a few bucks. Or, if you want mail-order dice-generated passphrases, you can always rely on teenage security prodigy Mira Modi to generate them for you for a small fee.
Price: $8.00 — $15.00 Available from: EFF | Diceware
A password manager subscription
Where are you going to store all those passphrases? A password manager, of course! Although most password managers are free, many come with premium features that let you securely synchronize your passwords across your many devices. Our favorite password manager is 1Password — which offers gift certificates. But, everyone will have their preference, and there are plenty of password managers out there to choose from.
Price: from $4.99/month Available from: 1Password | LastPass | Dashlane
Yubikey
You might be done with beefing up your passwords, but now you need to lock down your accounts to the max. Done right, two-factor authentication is a major barrier for hackers to beat. The strongest protection comes in the form of a Yubikey, a physical, NFC-enabled USB stick that tells Google, Facebook, Twitter and any other supported service that it’s you and nobody else. Yuibikeys are the gold standard of two-factor keys.
Price: from $45.00 Available from: Yubikey
A burner phone
Ever needed to make a one-time phone call to a source, an ally — or even an enemy — without being easily tracked? A burner phone is your friend. Though they’re not perfect, burner phones make it more difficult for the powers that be to track you from place to place, or identify you in a vast sea of metadata and call records. Finding a good burner phone also isn’t easy — it depends on the kinds of threats that you face. A cheap, available phone like the ZTE Z233 is available at many department stores and inner-city pharmacies. You should pay in cash to avoid any financial paper trail. Just, don’t get too attached; the point of a burner phone is that you ditch it after its one and only use. You could always use an app like Burner that generates a temporary phone number, if you don’t want to shell out money.
Price: around $19.99 Available from: Target | Sears
Counter-surveillance infrared eyewear
Nothing beats surveillance cameras like invisible infrared light — and clothing and accessory makers know that more than anyone. Pick up a pair of infrared-emitting spectacles that mask your face in CCTV-heavy cities. You can also buy “stealthwear” clothing that can help you blend into a crowd by deflecting heat.
Price: $95.00 — $125.00 Available from: Reflectacles
Privacy screens
These thin, sticky screens don’t look like much, but they are vital in preventing visual hacking efforts — that’s when someone looks over your shoulder and spies on your private information. Privacy screens block anyone looking at your display from outside your 60-degree viewing angle, so anyone next to you will see nothing but a darkened screen.
Price: $18.83 — $42.85 Available from: Amazon (phone) | Amazon (laptop)
An encrypted USB storage drive
Encrypted removable storage is hard to come by. Nobody should rely entirely on hardware-based encryption because many drives use proprietary cryptography that are full of bugs. One encryption-supported flash drive stands above the rest — an IronKey D300. The key uses signed firmware to prevent tampering, enforces strong passwords and comes in several storage sizes.
Price: $65.00 — $86.20 Available from: Kingston | Amazon
Chromebook
Chromebooks are lightweight and practical, yet range from low-end disposable (almost burner) devices to the high-end and powerful. These Chrome OS-powered behemoths are highly secure — and capable — even if they’re the underdog in the operating system space. With the right tools and guides, Chromebooks can be considerably locked down and a determined defender against even the most powerful adversary. There is an entire spectrum of devices to choose from — including entry-level laptops, mid-range devices and high-end performance giants — a Chromebook for every need, with uncompromising security.
Price: $179 — $499 — $999 Available from: Google
A webcam cover
Almost everyone knows that hackers can target your webcam and remotely spy on you. So get a webcam cover! There are so many to choose from, you can be as inventive as you want — from sliding covers and customizable covers — even boutique homemade webcam covers from Etsy. Or, if you’re on a budget, you can never go wrong with a good old fashioned Post-it note.
Price: from $4.99 Available from: Amazon | Etsy
A microphone blocker
Don’t forget about your microphone! Microphone blockers work on most devices with a 3.5mm headphone jack by tricking a laptop or a phone into thinking that an external microphone is installed. Instead, the blocker picks up nothing more than sweet, sweet silence. Most microphone blockers will fit on a keyring and can be taken on the go, but anyone wanting to use a blocker on a newer iPhone or iPad will need a headphone adapter.
Price: $5.99 — $15.99 Available from: Amazon | StackSocial
A USB condom
You might think this is a joke, but USB condoms are real! These pocket-sized plugs are great for isolating your devices from alien or untrusted ports, allowing users to power up without transmitting (or receiving) malicious data. Most are USB-A, so any USB-C powered devices — like MacBooks and newer iPads — will also need an adapter.
Price: $11.99 Available from: Amazon
Raspberry Pi mini-computer
These mini-computers might not seem like much, but the Raspberry Pi revolution has taken the developer and hobbyist world by storm. They are ideal for beginners for learning basic coding, they’re highly adaptable and expandable, allowing even the more advanced users to build fully fledged systems — from lightweight gaming machines to media centers, and security systems to virtual private network routers, and more! Nothing speaks to the security-minded geek than an open-source platform to play with.
Price: from $35.00 Available from: Raspberry Pi
An RFID blocking wallet
RFID hacking is where someone swipes your personal data or information from an NFC-enabled credit card and makes fraudulent purchases. RFID attacks aren’t a widespread issue but the threat from card skimming exists. The EFF has a decent RFID blocking wallet for a low price, while other, more upscale wallets cost far more.
Price: from $22.00 — 72.00 Available from: EFF | Ridge Wallet
Amazon Cloud Cam
You might think, why would I need a wireless camera if I’m trying to prevent surveillance? You’d be surprised at how useful a camera can be. Take Amazon’s Cloud Cam — it’s the most secure internet-connected camera available for its price. Think of it as your eyes and ears when you’re away from home — keeping your house and your things safe. Or, even take it with you, and use in your hotel room to prevent “evil maid” attacks. The camera works in the dark, can be easily hooked up to a Wi-Fi network, and its feed is remotely accessible using your Amazon account — which, like other camera makers, can be secured with two-factor authentication. You could even put your Yubikey to good use!
Price: $119.99 Available from: Amazon
pfSense router
You might not have heard of a pfSense router before, but these security gateways are ideal for protecting your Internet of Things applications. Many IoT devices are insecure or buggy, and can lead to a wider compromise of your home or corporate network. A pfSense router helps segment network traffic to isolate your potentially buggy devices from your production devices. pfSense routers are easy to set up and manage — so you’ll never really have to think about it again.
Price: $249.99 Available from: Netgate
A lock-pick training kit
For the fidgety types: a lock-pick training kit is a great gift for anyone who wants to learn the fundamentals of lock picking. Transparent padlocks work best, as you can easily understand how the innards work — and how to defeat them. There are many available, but you shouldn’t break the bank on a basic kit — especially for beginners.
Price: $30.00 — $59.95 Available from: Cool Material | Amazon
via TechCrunch
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Gift Guide: The best security and privacy tech to keep your friends safe
Libertarian on lockdown? Privacy minded or paranoid?
Security is more front of mind today than ever befroe. If it’s not a company vacuuming up your data or nation states trying to hack your email, it’s your own “opsec” that needs a refresh.
For this holiday season, we have over a dozen gift ideas — from practical gadgets that will make it harder for spies to listen in, and data-saving tips that will keep your information safe — without breaking the bank.
Passphrase dice
Coming up with passwords that are easy to remember is difficult. The better way is to use a longer and more memorable passphrase instead. It’s as easy as rolling a handful of dice and using wordlists! You can pick up a five-pack of dice to generate random passphrases for just a few bucks. Or, if you want mail-order dice-generated passphrases, you can always rely on teenage security prodigy Mira Modi to generate them for you for a small fee.
Price: $8.00 — $15.00 Available from: EFF | Diceware
A password manager subscription
Where are you going to store all those passphrases? A password manager, of course! Although most password managers are free, many come with premium features that let you securely synchronize your passwords across your many devices. Our favorite password manager is 1Password — which offers gift certificates. But, everyone will have their preference, and there are plenty of password managers out there to choose from.
Price: from $4.99/month Available from: 1Password | LastPass | Dashlane
Yubikey
You might be done with your passwords, but now need to lock down your accounts to the max. Done right, two-factor authentication is a major barrier for hackers to beat. The strongest protection comes in form of a Yubikey, a physical, NFC-enabled USB stick that tells Google, Facebook, Twitter and any other supported service that it’s you and nobody else. Yuibikeys are the gold standard of two-factor keys.
Price: from $45.00 Available from: Yubikey
A burner phone
Ever needed to make a one-time phone call to a source, an ally — or even an enemy — without being easily tracked? A burner phone is your friend. Though they’re not perfect, burner phones make it more difficult for the powers that be to track you from place to place, or identify you in a vast sea of metadata and call records. Finding a good burner phone also isn’t easy — it depends on the kinds of threats that you face. A cheap, available phone like the ZTE Z233 is available at many department stores and inner-city pharmacies. You should pay in cash to avoid any financial paper trail. Just, don’t get too attached; the point of a burner phone is that you ditch it after its one and only use. You could always use an app like Burner that generates a temporary phone number number, if you don’t want to shell out money.
Price: around $19.99 Available from: Target | Sears
Counter-surveillance infrared eyewear
Nothing beats surveillance cameras like invisible infrared light — andlothing and accessory makers know that more than anyone. Pick up a pair of infrared-emitting spectacles that mask your face in CCTV-heavy cities. You can also buy “stealthwear” clothing that can help you blend into a crowd by deflecting heat.
Price: $95.00 — $125.00 Available from: Reflectacles
Privacy screens
These thin, sticky screens don’t look like much, but they are vital in preventing visual hacking efforts — that’s when someone looks over your shoulder and spies on your private information. Privacy screens block anyone looking at your display from outside your 60-degree viewing angle, so anyone sat next to you will see nothing but a darkened screen.
Price: $18.83 — $42.85 Available from: Amazon (phone) | Amazon (laptop)
An encrypted USB storage drive
Encrypted removable storage is hard to come by. Nobody should rely entire on hardware-based encryption because many drives use proprietary cryptography that are full of bugs. One encryption-supported flash drive stands above the rest — an IronKey D300. The key uses signed firmware to prevent tampering, enforces strong passwords and comes in several storages sizes.
Price: $65.00 — $86.20 Available from: Kingston | Amazon
Chromebook
Chromebooks are lightweight and practical, yet range from low-end disposable (almost burner) devices to the high-end and powerful. These Chrome OS-powered behemoths are highly secure — and capable — even if they’re the underdog in the operating system space. With the right tools and guides, Chromebooks can be considerably locked down and a determined defender against even the most powerful adversary. There is an entire spectrum of devices to choose from — including entry-level laptops, mid-range devices and high-end performance giants — a Chromebook for every need, with uncompromising security.
Price: $179 — $499 — $999 Available from: Google
A webcam cover
Almost everyone knows that hackers can target your webcam and remotely spy on you. So get a webcam cover! There are so many to choose from, you can be as inventive as you want — from sliding covers and customizable covers — even boutique homemade webcam covers from Etsy. Or, if you’re on a budget, you can never go wrong with a good old fashioned Post-it note.
Price: from $4.99 Available from: Amazon | Etsy
A microphone blocker
Don’t forget about your microphone! Microphone blockers work on most devices with a 3.5mm headphone jack by tricking a laptop or a phone into thinking that an external microphone is installed. Instead, the blocker picks up nothing more than sweet, sweet silence. Most microphone blockers will fit on a keyring and can be taken on the go, but anyone wanting to use a blocker on a newer iPhone or iPad will need a headphone adapter.
Price: $5.99 — $15.99 Available from: Amazon | StackSocial
A USB condom
You might think this is a joke, but USB condoms are real! These pocket-sized plugs are great for isolating your devices from alien or untrusted ports, allowing users to power up without transmitting (or receiving) malicious data. Most are USB-A, so any USB-C powered devices — like MacBooks and newer iPads — will also need an adapter.
Price: $11.99 Available from: Amazon
Raspberry Pi mini-computer
These mini-computers might not seem like much, but the Raspberry Pi revolution has taken the developer and hobbyist world by storm. They are ideal for beginners for learning basic coding, they’re highly adaptable and expandable, allowing even the more advanced users to build fully-fledged — from gaming machines to media centers, and security systems and virtual private network routers — and more. Nothing speaks to the security-minded geek than an open source platform to play with.
Price: from $35.00 Available from: Raspberry Pi
An RFID blocking wallet
RFID hacking is where someone swipes your personal data or information from an NFC-enabled credit card and make fraudulent purchases. RFID attacks aren’t a widespread issue but the threat from card skimming exists. The EFF has a decent RFID blocking wallet for a low price, while other, more upscale wallets cost far more.
Price: from $22.00 — 72.00 Available from: EFF | Ridge Wallet
Amazon Cloud Cam
You might think, why would I need a wireless camera if I’m trying to prevent surveillance? You’d be surprised at how useful a camera can be. Take Amazon’s Cloud Cam — it’s the most secure internet-connected camera available for its price. Think of it as your eyes and ears when you’re away from home — keeping your house and your things safe. Or, even take it with you, and use in your hotel room to prevent “evil maid” attacks. The camera works in the dark, can be easily hooked up to a Wi-Fi network, and its feed is remotely accessible using your Amazon account — which, like other camera makers, can be secured with two-factor authentication. You could even put your Yubikey to good use!
Price: $119.99 Available from: Amazon
pfSense router
You might not have heard of a pfSense router before, but these security gateways are ideal for protecting your Internet of Things applications. Many IoT devices are insecure or buggy, and can lead to a wider compromise of your home or corporate network. A pfSense router helps segment network traffic to isolate your potentially buggy devices from your production devices. pfSense routers are easy to set up and manage — so you’ll never really have to think about it again.
Price: $249.99 Available from: Netgate
A lock-pick training kit
For the fidgety types: a lock-pick training kit is a great gift for anyone who wants to learn the fundamentals of lock picking. Transparent padlocks work best, as you can easily understand how the innards work — and how to defeat them. There are many available, but you shouldn’t break the bank on a basic kit — especially for beginners.
Price: $30.00 — $59.95 Available from: Cool Material | Amazon
Via Zack Whittaker https://techcrunch.com
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Fascinated by electronics and communications engineering? Know more in this blog.

Some of the best colleges in India providing Electronics and Communications Engineering are.
SRM University- Bangalore REVA University- Bangalore PES University- Bangalore RAMAIAH Institute Of Technology- Bangalore MVJ College Of Engineering- Bangalore CAMBRIDGE Institute of Technology- Bangalore ATRIA Institute Of Technology- Bangalore HKBK College Of Engineering- Bangalore
These colleges will be taking part in an education event in Tirupati, Anantapur, and Vijayawada this year, to help students if you are in and around Tirupati, you don’t want to miss this event.
As this event is being conducted for the welfare of the students, the entry is absolutely FREE.
Register now for ABN Vidhya Jyothi by clicking on the link below:-
http://www.vidhyajyothi.in/
Or you can register by calling
89706 36149, 97423 45039
Electronic communications engineering is the utilization of science and math applied to practical problems in the field of communications. Electronic communications engineers engage in research, design, development, and testing of the electronic equipment used in various communications systems. It is due to electrical engineers that we enjoy such modern communication devices as cellular telephones, radios, and television.
Why Electronics and Communication Engineering Branch?
Communication is a thing without which we cannot live and electronics is an integral part of our life, hence electronics and communication branch shows a huge scope. In present as well as in future, right from local wristwatches to washing machines, refrigerators to huge turbines, marine ships, trains, airplanes are electronicist and handled only based on electronics, you can find a person without kerchief but not with cellphones, which belongs to communication’s progress in these years.
Scope of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Studying electronics and communication engineering is the dream of every second aspirant due to a number of reasons – growth, job opportunities, salary range and continuous industry growth. The major driving force for the present day Information Technology revolution is the development in Electronics Engineering. The advancements in microelectronics, satellite and optical fiber technology, analog and digital in communication techniques have resulted in developing complex electronic devices, circuits and equipment are capable of implementing fast and efficient telecommunication systems. Real-time transfer of audio and video signals is now possible with recent trends in broadband technologies. Penetration of electronics has now revolutionized other areas like healthcare, instrumentation, automation, remote sensing, signal processing etc. the basic principles and performance of electronic devices and circuits are introduced in the course. Design and analysis of different analog and digital circuits are considered in detail.
Different analog and digital modulation techniques used for communication, equipment’s and systems involved in wireless communications, satellite and optical communication technologies, computer communication and networking, design and development of microelectronic circuits for computation and processing, components and systems for electronic instrumentation and control etc,. form major content of the course.
Career option in Electronics and Communication Engineering
Professionals may work in nearly every industry such as commercial, industrial, military or scientific companies. Job opportunities are available in both software and electronics companies. One may also enter into research and development. Candidates have ample opportunities in this field. Specialists can work in both private and public firms. A degree in this field develops candidate’s analytical and programming skills, which makes you compatible with even software companies. Upon completion of the degree, candidates can choose to work in consumer electronics, electricity generation and distribution, transportation, aviation and avionics, computer applications, radio and television, telecommunications, manufacturing and offshore industries. Electronics and Communication Engineers are acquired by top recruiters (both private and government) like DMRC, Siemens, Motorola, Intel, Texas Instruments, BEL, ISRO, DRDO, Accenture, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Nvidia, Samsung, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, TCS, Conexant, MTNL, AIR, BSNL, Indian Airforce, Indian Navy, Railways, Bharat Electronics Ltd and Flextronics and Philips Electronics.Higher Education Opportunities for Electronics and Communication Students There is a lot of scope for students doing M.S or M.Tech in the field of electronics&communication engineering. Having masters will certainly improve your career prospects and help you get hired by top MNC’s. Governments across the globe are spending millions of dollars in this field for research and development. So, the scope for doing Ph.D. in these fields is a risk worth taking. You will get scholarships and financial aid to do Ph.D. from various government and nongovernment organizations. If you planning to do MS or Ph.D. programs in the US, you had to go through GRE and TOEFL exams. For M.Tech, you should score high in GATE exams.
Research opportunity The major goal of the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering Colleges in Noida is to produce highly knowledgeable, competent and resourceful young engineers who can perform well in a wide variety of job profiles. To achieve this, the curriculum provides a strong foundation in both the analytic and technological aspects of E&C Engineering. It also provides ample opportunities for students to work on mini-projects, develop communication skills, explore internship opportunities in industry and world-class universities and take part in national and international design contests. The Department offers an Under Graduate program in Electronics and Communication Engineering, a PG program in VLSI design and electronics&communication engineering colleges ( ECE) which provide a platform for bright graduates and postgraduates to conduct research in state-of-the-art technologies. The Department is also a recognized center of E-Yantra, Embedded and Robotics Lab Sponsored by MHRD Government of India under the National Mission on Education through ICT program The lab focuses on latest projects and research in the area of Robotics and embedded systems. It is a Cumulative effort by ECE, EE, CS, IT and ME department for active learning and hands-on experience for those students having a keen interest in the field of Robotics. The department has been actively involved in several quality enhancement projects. In recent years, the department has embarked on R&D projects funded by central agencies such as MHRD, DIT, Govt. of India and private industries. In addition, the department is involved in consultancy services also.
New Innovation and Technology 1. Connectivity to enable the trusted digital enterprise The manufacturing industry is on the cusp of the 4th wave of transformation that holds the promise of a step change in productivity. Industrial IoT business models are being defined with increased flexibility, co-operative human-machine interaction and the use of data analytics to identify trends and dynamic system relationships that were previously hidden or inaccessible. 2. Bringing LED solutions to market Although it’s 15 years since LED lighting made its debut, take-up is accelerating across all areas of lighting, helped by its lower power consumption, longer lifespan, increased robustness and faster switching capabilities. 3. An eye for detail is needed when choosing the display technology for your next application A color display is hard to beat in any application and continued price erosion means it is becoming commercially viable to use graphical color displays in a wider range of applications. 4. Powerful telescopes bring us closer to the Big Bang Humankind has always wondered what secrets the universe was hiding in its starry depths and striven to understand how we fit into the bigger picture. This curiosity is still strong, as demonstrated by the number of powerful telescopes that have either been built recently or are under construction. 5. Is industry ready for 5G? just less than a month ago, the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, used his budget speech to make a case for 5G, the next-generation mobile technology and promised to invest £16million in a series of trials and to support research into the development of technology to underpin its deployment. 6. Revolutionising networking technology The networking world has largely been defined by the development of fixed function chips. While these devices have been one of the means by which data rates have increased, this has been achieved at the expense of configurability. 7. The choices involved in adding IP support to embedded systems The tentacles of the internet are reaching further into the domain of deeply embedded systems that used, at most, to be attached to simple field buses. Although the internet may stop short of ‘smart’ light bulbs that use Zigbee or Bluetooth to communicate, more organizations are looking at supporting the Internet Protocol (IP) directly in sensor nodes and smart actuators. 8. Track sure sensor system to transform rail networks Monitoring the rail network is a costly and time-consuming endeavor, but the University of Huddersfield’s Institute of Railway Research (IRR) has developed a new sensor system that could transform the way in which networks are maintained by turning rail vehicles into track monitors. For more information about
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Финтех-тусовка заподозрила Humaniq в мошенничестве
С сайта проекта Humaniq, который провёл ICO на $5 млн весной 2017 года, пропала информация о людях, имеющих отношение к проекту, а финтех-тусовка заподозрила Humaniq в мошенничестве.
Обсуждение:
Игорь Костылев (Futurebanking): Гайз, а что с Алексом Форком и его Humaniq?
Кирилл Горыня: С такой фамилией фаундера у блокчейн проекта может быть много неожиданных поворотов)))
Александр Лупачев (Russia Partners): Если не отвечает в соц сетях, то можно отправить телеграмму с уведомлением Васильеву Алексею Викторовичу, 170042, Тверь, Артиллерийский пер.7, кв.237.
Константин Плавник: Гы гы гы. Без устали днём и ночью пытаются спасти Африку. Альтруисты! Визионеры!
Юрий Новиков Трубецкой: С большой вероятностью, никакого Хуманика не будет. Осталось ли что-то от собранных денег, тоже большой вопрос. Не так уж и много было тех денег.
Виктор Насочевский: Один из первых скам проектов. Собрали сколько смогли и исчезли с горизонта.
Отсюда.
Одновременно с сайта Humaniq пропала информация из раздела about. Адрес https://humaniq.com/about выдаёт ошибку 404. Копия этой информации сохранена здесь: http://finside.ru/1253.
Там информация о людях, имеющих отношение к проекту, в частности, об Алексе Форке (на фото слева; предпочитает пользоваться псевдонимом, а не реальным именем) и «молдавском олигархе» и «визионере» Дмитрии Каминском (на фото справа; ранее покупал Интерактивный банк и обещал вложить в ibank 1 миллиард долларов. На деле банк был лишён лицензии ЦБ в апреле 2016 года, вкладчики получали выплаты из АСВ).
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About Humaniq
A little snapshot about the people that live Humaniq and run Humaniq.
Our Mission
Today, two billion people around the world do not have access to banking. Humaniq aims to increase financial inclusion worldwide by providing new financial services to the unbanked based on Blockchain technology and biometric identification systems. With this new mobile digital economy, we will help people who are excluded from the financial system break free from poverty and improve their lives, and emerging economies shift into the cryptoeconomy.
Humaniq Team
Alex Fork Head of Humaniq Humaniq founder and Fintech entrepreneur Alex is one of the most important members of the international Blockchain community, who has worked with the UN to lead the deployment of Blockchain technology to improve the efficiency of UN resources and remittances. He has also spearheaded the harnessing of blockchains in Russia, organising a conference for 500 participants on the Ethereum Blockchain; authoring Bitcoin. More than Just Money; and founding the Fintech accelerator for startups in Russia, Future Fintech. He started Humaniq to help lift the global banked out of poverty.
Serafima Semkina CAO Bringing experience of management and economics, Serafima’s passions include art, music and Russian literature and the crypto-economy. She cannot stand inequality and is happy to have the opportunity to tackle it with Humaniq.
Javed Khattak CFO Javed has a background as an actuary and of finance, consulting and startups. He loves technology, especially gadgets, AI and virtual reality, and believes in Blockchain for Good. He is working with Humaniq to bring greater opportunities and fairness to the world.
Anton Mozgovoy Product Manager Anton was motivated to work with Humaniq to use his experience in both computer science and finance to help to bring happiness for all across the world. He is passionate about freedriving and wakeboarding, and, of course, staying late to finish work.
Georgii Oleinikov Developer Bringing experience of mathematics and computer science, Georgii loves things that have an impact and people that make these things happen. He believes there is big room for improvement in the financial sector, with many not served.
Kherel Kechil Lead Frontend Developer Kherel is a digital nomad. He joined Humaniq to experience and participate in the financial evolution, and observe changes to the better in the country where he currently resides — China.
Peyman Irani SMM, CSS Peyman’s background is in sales and marketing, entrepreneurship, and social media and he is passionate about his family, innovation and humanitarian capitalism. Fairness means a lot to him and he believes we can do something great for humanity at Humaniq.
Segrey Blinov SMM, CSS Bringing experience of social media and customer service support, Segrey is passionate about Blockchain technology and his family.
Danny Kass SMM, CSS Danny’s background is in social media, B2B sales and customer service support. He loves cryptoeconomy and technology and at Humaniq is motivated to disrupt the financial industry with an ecosystem for entrepreneurs to make changes from the bottom up.
Andriy Schechenko Forum Administrator Andriy has experience in computer science, security research, online community building and entrepreneurship and is passionate about both improving the world and space exploration. At Humaniq he wants to contribute to something good for humanity and boost financial independence.
Lee Baker Writer Lee has a background in both communications and community organising and loves story-telling to inspire positive action and to connect with others to change things for the better. He wants to unleash the power of the collaborative economy and help everyone to put their destinies into their own hands.
Olga Derbio Graphic Designer Olga has a background in architecture, interior design and graphic design, and is passionate about inspiring others, building sites, spontaneity, and the universe. She is at Humaniq so she can be creative for social good — and to become a crypto geek!
Humaniq Advisers
Dinis Guarda
Digital age influencer Dinis is the founder of digital communications consultancy Ztudium and manager of websites intelligenthq.com, openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, and hedgethink.com. Dinis also co-founded BlockchainAge, a blockchain research and tech influencer, platform, book and film; led the digital strategy for invstr.com; authored books including The Next Tsunami: Blockchain plus AI and IOT and led a digital master course in London for Group INSEEC. He has been ranked as in the top 100 Blockchain and Fintech influencers.
Dmitry Kaminskiy
An innovative entrepreneur and investor active in Biotech, Fintech, Blockchain and artificial intelligence, Dmitry is co-founder of the Deep Knowledge Ventures investment fund, focused on investments in AI and Deeptech. He adheres to the principle of impact investment in all his business activities, believing that business should make a social impact, and he supports the deployment of Blockchain for Good, which led to his decision to support Humaniq from its inception.
David Applefield
Is an American writer and media specialist living in Paris. He has as spent his career developing creative and innovative solutions for business leaders, heads of state, ministries, NGOs, and other not-for- profit foundations. He is the Financial Times representative for Africa, the Middle East and emerging markets.
Iggy Bassi
Is the co-founder and serves as a Director of GADCO, a venture focused on sustainable agriculture and livelihood development in West Africa with LATAM technologies. He has a long track record in building companies in the technology, finance, and impact markets – in both emerged and emerging markets. Over the past 20 years he has advised many global companies (inc. Fortune 500), sovereigns, and entrepreneurs on solving problems in competitiveness, sustainability, scenario planning, and structuring complex transactions. He works at the intersection of technology, sustainability, food security, global security, and innovative thinking around the collaborative economy.
Matt McKibbin
Is a business development guru and a decentralization evangelist. He became interested in Bitcoin and the blockchain technology in 2012. Technologically savvy, he is an extroverted connector driven by a desire to see transformative and decentralized technologies positively affect the 7 billion people on the planet. He is based in the Washington DC metro area.
Alex Bausch
Is an entrepreneur with broad experience in all aspects of international business development and the creation of global technology companies. He strongly believes in partner ecosystems which aim to inspire and spawn new innovations. His specialties include: SaaS services, mobile identity security, the IoT, enterprise managed mobility, decentralised ledger technology, marketing, and product development.
Nick Ayton
Is a writer, speaker and educator of all things Blockchain and Cryptocurrency. He is a Fintech 100 Influencer and Number 21 Rise Blockchain Top 100. He has had eight startups and held many senior roles in major IT and tech companies. He now chairs various Blockchain events and advises a range of clients on Blockchain technology, bitcoin and Ethereum. One of his latest projects is to raise funds using cryptoeconomics and create a new film finance model to make a mini- series for TV about the Bitcoin Revolution, an asset backed Token, and a new Media and Film Production business on Ethereum. Ron Morris
Has been designing and delivering educational programs in multiple countries for over a decade. After several years working for Groupe INSEEC, France’s largest higher education group, he went on to direct their London campus, bringing in top-tier thought leaders, practitioners, and companies to contribute to programs and events. He has now opened a new campus for Groupe INSEEC in San Francisco, delivering immersive, challenge-based programs focused on innovation and entrepreneurship, bringing together a wide range of startups, accelerators, institutes, and thought leaders.
Tim Campbell
In previous roles Tim has been a key government advisor on Diversity, Small Business Social Enterprise and Entrepreneurship. Tim was also Boris Johnson’s Training and Enterprise ambassador for the City of London whilst Mr Johnson was Mayor of London. In February 2012 Tim was awarded the MBE for his efforts supporting enterprise and he currently sits on the City of London’s Education Board. Tim is a keen runner and martial arts enthusiast and is happily married with two children. Michael Terpin
Michael Terpin co-founded BitAngels (www.bitangels.co), the world’s first angel network for digital currency startups, in May 2013, and now serves as its chairman. The distributed angel network currently has more than 600 members, and it has made more than 25 investments in bitcoin and cryptocurrency companies with two exits and several follow-on rounds. Terpin is also co-founder and managing partner of bCommerce Labs (www.bcommercelabs.com), the first technology incubator fund focused on e-commerce companies for bitcoin and the blockchain, and a partner at Flight VC.
Chami Akmeemana
Paolo Tasca
Paolo Tasca is a FinTech economist specialising in P2P Financial System. An advisor for different international organisations including the EU Parliament on blockchain technologies, Paolo recently joined the University College London as Director of the Centre for Blockchain Technologies (UCL CBT). Prior to that, he has been a senior research economist at Deutsche Bundesbank working on digital currencies and P2P lending. Paolo is the co-author of the bestseller «FINTECH Book» and the co-editor of the book «Banking Beyond Banks and Money. A quick walk through our history as a company:
2016
April
Inception of the Humaniq idea by Alex Fork.
November
Humaniq Whitebook is written and the original project team is formed.
December
Humaniq.co website is launched and pre-ICO is announced
2017
February
Smart contracts are being developed, due diligence and marketing campaign take place.
February
Humaniq team meets with project partners in India. Alex Fork conducts the first performance tests of the project in unbanked regions of India.
February
Humaniq announces first online hackathon
February
Pre-ICO (crowdsale) is launched
March
Alpha version of the app is available for testing on IOS and Android.
April
Humaniq collects $1.5 mln in the first hour of their ICO.
May
App with new enchanced biometrics is being released.
Now
Humaniq is 43 people now, working from 14 countries.
product Open source Humaniq Wiki HMQ Explorer company About Blog Forum Use Cases Partners Ambassadors legal Privacy Security Policies resources White Paper Contact us Humaniq Humaniq is a simple and secure mobile app, delivering financial inclusion solutions to the 2.5 billion unbanked / 1 billion underbanked globally.
http://finside.ru/1253 Источник Финсайд
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How Samsung’s new voice assistant, Bixby, is different from Siri
Image: ILLUSTRATION by Ambar Del Moral/Mashable
Samsung has a new voice. And it has world-changing ambitions.
In the upcoming Galaxy S8, users will find an extra button on the left side of the phone, just below the volume controls. Pressing it will activate Bixby, Samsung’s new voice assistant. Once activated, Bixby will help you navigate what’s arguably the most sophisticated piece of technology you own the smartphone in your hand.
If Samsung gets its wish, though, Bixby will eventually do much more than just help you order Lyfts or set up complex calendar appointments. The long-term vision is for Bixby to act as a kind of uber-interface for all of Samsung’s products: TVs, wearables, washing machines, even remote controls.
SEE ALSO: Samsung Galaxy S8: all the leaks in one place
Samsung designed Bixby with a specific goal in mind, one that veers away from its fellow voice assistants Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana and the Google Assistant. Those platforms were generally built to help users quickly perform common tasks (“Remind me to buy milk”) and perform search queries (“What’s the capital of Brazil?”). Bixby, on the other hand, is all about making the phone itself easier to use, replicating the functions of many apps with voice commands.
Yes, Siri et al. already do that to a certain extent you can easily set a reminder with your voice, for example but the voice integration typically only handles the basics. The goal of Bixby is to voice-enable every single action in an app that you’d normally do via touch, starting with Samsung’s apps. So, not just “set a reminder to buy pickles at 6 p.m., but “Set a reminder on my Shopping List to buy pickles at 6 p.m. and make it repeat every week, then share the list with my wife.”
Bixby speaks
Injong Rhee, CTO of Samsung Mobile and the architect behind Bixby, says the voice assistant is nothing short of an “interface revolution,” freeing users from hunting down hidden functionality within menus and hard-to-find screens.
“Bixby is an intelligent user interface, emphasis… on ‘interface,'” Rhee says. “A lot of agents are looking at being knowledgeable, meaning that you can ask questions like, ‘Who’s president of the U.S.?’ A lot of these are glorified extensions of search. What we are doing with Bixby, and what Bixby is capable of doing, is developing a new interface to our devices.”
Bixby architect Injong Rhee, CTO of Samsung Mobile.
Image: Pete Pachal/Mashable
Although it makes its debut on the Galaxy S8, it will soon spread. Rhee sees the Bixby button eventually spreading to all kinds of smart-home devices, from TVs to refrigerators to air conditioners.
“Anywhere there is an internet connection and a microphone, Bixby can be used,” he says. “There is some technology in the device, but a lot of it lives in the cloud. That’s why the range of devices goes beyond just a smartphone. It means it can be in any device we produce.”
“Anywhere there is an internet connection and a microphone, Bixby can be used.”
Samsung began work on Bixby about 18 months ago, Rhee says. It grew out of the company’s S Voice tool, which has been on Samsung phones since 2012. (The timing might explain why Samsung’s smart fridge announced right around then failed to deliver on its planned integration with Alexa.) S Voice hadn’t progressed much over the years, but then last year Samsung acquired the much-hyped Viv Labs and its sophisticated assistant, a strong indicator of the company’s renewed interest in voice control. However, Rhee says Viv’s technology is planned for future updates to Bixby and doesn’t have a role in the initial release.
The name Bixby came out of Samsung’s focus groups, but it was actually their third choice overall. It was the top pick among millennials a demographic the company is specifically targeting with the Galaxy S8 so it won out. (Rhee declined to say what the other names were.) It’s also distinctive enough, with hard consonants, for it to work well as an activation word. Bixby, which will initially speak just English and Korean, is intended to be a user’s “bright sidekick,” helping them navigate their devices in a more natural way.
“[What came before], it’s been people trying to learn how the machine interacts with the world, but… it should be the machine learns how the human interacts with the world,” Rhee says. “The learning curve shouldn’t be steep.”
All talk, all action
For an app to be considered Bixby-supported, every possible touch action needs to be mapped to a voice command. Rhee explains that, for a typical app, there are about 300 different actions the user can perform. That doesn’t sound too bad until you consider there are around 15,000 different ways to perform them. And the ways to verbalize those actions number in the millions. That’s a lot of stuff to map out.
Still, Samsung says it’s up for the challenge, at least as far as its built-in apps are concerned. But what about third-party apps? Considering the amount of development work, will Snapchat or Facebook ever work as well with Bixby as Samsung’s apps?
Bixby will take you as far as it can rather than just hitting you with a, “Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”
Rhee says Samsung has a plan to get third-party apps talking to Bixby, and an SDK to be released at a later date will introduce tools that make the mapping much easier. He also suggests Viv’s technology can help here, too.
“Viv Labs is coming in by way expanding our vision into third-party ecosystems. It doesn’t necessarily have to be all of the touch commands that they can perform. At a minimum, [Bixby will perform] the basic functionalities: like the settings, or changing the language from English to French.”
On the Galaxy S8, a total of 10 apps will be Bixby-supported, Rhee says, with a second “wave” coming a few weeks later. Out of the gate, users will be able to use Bixby with Contacts, Gallery, Settings, Camera, Reminders and a few others.
Another way Bixby is different from its peers: it will be aware of what you’re doing on the phone and suggest different actions depending on what’s on screen. So if you press the button while, say, looking at a single photo in the Gallery, editing and sharing controls are probably more relevant to you than searching. And if Bixby doesn’t understand every aspect of a complex command, it will take you as far as it can rather than just hitting you with a “Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”
All this “awareness” brings up an important question: How much data is Samsung collecting about you? Rhee says most user-specific data is kept on the device, but, as a cloud service, Bixby needs to store some information in the cloud. It’s not yet clear what the exact breakdown is.
The button
Having a dedicated button for Bixby brings a number of advantages. For starters, it means Samsung won’t have any need for Clippy-style pop-ups directing users to the assistant people will inevitably find it on their own. It also ensures there will be far fewer accidental activations than if Bixby were mixed into a home button something users of Siri are all too familiar with.
“We actually have done a lot of research to have the Bixby button as part of the home button like our friends in Cupertino,” Rhee says. “A lot of people find it a little awkward to use it in public. The home button is a very overloaded place there’s a lot of functionality into it. Having a dedicated button really removes a lot of friction.”
It’s the dedicated button that really epitomizes Samsung’s approach.
And since the idea is to press and hold, lifting your finger when you’re done, Bixby will know definitively when you’re done speaking. Still, there will also be a wake-up phrase you can just say “Hi Bixby,” to activate the assistant at any time.
It’s the dedicated button that really epitomizes Samsung’s approach, and if it indeed ends up on all Samsung products, Bixby will become much more than just a smartphone assistant it’ll become the gateway for Samsung to finally, truly become a major player in the internet of things.
Sure, Samsung has had its “Smart” devices for a long time, and its low-power Tizen OS is ideal for powering the many products with connections to the internet. It also acquired SmartThings in 2014 to strengthen its IoT brand.
But until now, Samsung has lacked a gateway for its customers to really take advantage of that interconnectivity. For most, it’s hard work hunting down the right settings on your phone to connect a smart TV to an air conditioner, but what if you could just tell Bixby to do it? And if you can talk to it from all those devices asking any question or even making phone calls then you’re really onto something.
“It’s actually omnipresent in a sense,” Rhee says. “Even if I speak to Bixby in, say, a washing machine, you can still do a lot of things that you do on your phone. For instance, you can say, ‘Bixby, send a text to my friend Michael,’ or ‘Make a phone call.’ That’s the vision.”
The more capable assistant
Amazon and Google already know this, and the success of Alexa and buzz around Home are a testament to the unquestionable efficiency of adding voice control to devices. But Samsung, with its high standard of controlling all functions of a device via Bixby, might end up with the advantage. Alexa, for all of its “skills,” often falls short of full control (you can turn on or dim LED lights, for example, but might not be able to select specific colors), so the market has room for a more capable competitor. Of course, how and when Bixby will mix with third-party products and services remains an open question.
“Philosophically, what we are looking at is revolutionizing phone interfaces,” Rhee says. “We understand our applications better than anybody else out there that’s why we started with our own technology, but going forward we have plans to work with our partners.”
Bixby may be the best thing to happen to Samsung software in a long time.
Eventually, Rhee says a Bixby app might come to non-Samsung Android phones and even iOS, possibly partnering with Google Assistant for search-related queries (though he cautions Google and Samsung haven’t “gotten to the specifics” on how that would work).
At the same time, Bixby control could extend to all kinds of smart products, not just Samsung ones. That would probably take a level of cooperation with competitors that Samsung hasn’t really shown before, but if Bixby becomes ubiquitous in the long term, whatever OS this or that device is running will become less relevant.
That’s a future Samsung is clearly hoping for, since software has traditionally been its weakness. Samsung may be a chief Android partner, but it’s struggled to differentiate its many services from Google’s, and the company lacks an OS of its own (Tizen notwithstanding). Samsung’s browser, Samsung Pay, S Health they’re all duplicates of Google products, and are widely regarded as inferior.
That’s why Bixby may be the best thing to happen to Samsung software in a long time. If customers respond, Bixby could, in the long term, finally get Samsung users to think of its phones as Samsung phones rather than just the best-performing Android phones on the market. All Android vendors try to differentiate to some extent, but Bixby’s app-simplifying skills and potential IoT capabilities are a compelling sell.
Bixby represents an important step for Samsung when it comes to services: finally a good answer to “Why should I use your software?” Effortless voice control of everything not just your phone is a tantalizing promise, and if Samsung can pull it off in the long term, its “bright sidekick” might end up being the only assistant we actually want to talk to.
WATCH: Samsung’s wireless earbuds double as a fitness-tracker
Read more: http://ift.tt/2ndLCYb
from How Samsung’s new voice assistant, Bixby, is different from Siri
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Link
Samsung has a new voice. And it has world-changing ambitions.
Pressing it will activate Bixby, Samsung's new voice assistant. Once activated, Bixby will help you navigate what's arguably the most sophisticated piece of technology you own — the smartphone in your hand.
If Samsung gets its wish, though, Bixby will eventually do much more than just help you order Lyfts or set up complex calendar appointments. The long-term vision is for Bixby to act as a kind of uber-interface for all of Samsung's products: TVs, wearables, washing machines, even remote controls.
Samsung designed Bixby with a specific goal in mind, one that veers away from its fellow voice assistants — Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana and the Google Assistant. Those platforms were generally built to help users quickly perform common tasks ("Remind me to buy milk") and perform search queries ("What's the capital of Brazil?"). Bixby, on the other hand, is all about making the phone itself easier to use, replicating the functions of many apps with voice commands.
Yes, Siri et al. already do that to a certain extent — you can easily set a reminder with your voice, for example — but the voice integration typically only handles the basics. The goal of Bixby is to voice-enable every single action in an app that you'd normally do via touch, starting with Samsung's apps. So, not just "set a reminder to buy pickles at 6 p.m., but "Set a reminder on my Shopping List to buy pickles at 6 p.m. and make it repeat every week, then share the list with my wife."
Bixby speaks
Injong Rhee, CTO of Samsung Mobile and the architect behind Bixby, says the voice assistant is nothing short of an "interface revolution," freeing users from hunting down hidden functionality within menus and hard-to-find screens.
"Bixby is an intelligent user interface, emphasis... on 'interface,'" Rhee says. "A lot of agents are looking at being knowledgeable, meaning that you can ask questions like, 'Who's president of the U.S.?' A lot of these are glorified extensions of search. What we are doing with Bixby, and what Bixby is capable of doing, is developing a new interface to our devices."Although it makes its debut on the Galaxy S8, it will soon spread. Rhee sees the Bixby button eventually spreading to all kinds of smart-home devices, from TVs to refrigerators to air conditioners.
"Anywhere there is an internet connection and a microphone, Bixby can be used," he says. "There is some technology in the device, but a lot of it lives in the cloud. That's why the range of devices goes beyond just a smartphone. It means it can be in any device we produce."
Samsung began work on Bixby about 18 months ago, Rhee says. It grew out of the company's S Voice tool, which has been on Samsung phones since 2012. (The timing might explain why Samsung's smart fridge — announced right around then — failed to deliver on its planned integration with Alexa.) S Voice hadn't progressed much over the years, but then last year Samsung acquired the much-hyped Viv Labs and its sophisticated assistant, a strong indicator of the company's renewed interest in voice control. However, Rhee says Viv's technology is planned for future updates to Bixby and doesn't have a role in the initial release.
The name Bixby came out of Samsung's focus groups, but it was actually their third choice overall. It was the top pick among millennials — a demographic the company is specifically targeting with the Galaxy S8 — so it won out. (Rhee declined to say what the other names were.) It's also distinctive enough, with hard consonants, for it to work well as an activation word. Bixby, which will initially speak just English and Korean, is intended to be a user's "bright sidekick," helping them navigate their devices in a more natural way.
"[What came before], it's been people trying to learn how the machine interacts with the world, but... it should be the machine learns how the human interacts with the world," Rhee says. "The learning curve shouldn't be steep."
All talk, all action
For an app to be considered Bixby-supported, every possible touch action needs to be mapped to a voice command. Rhee explains that, for a typical app, there are about 300 different actions the user can perform. That doesn't sound too bad until you consider there are around 15,000 different ways to perform them. And the ways to verbalize those actions number in the millions. That's a lot of stuff to map out.
Still, Samsung says it's up for the challenge, at least as far as its built-in apps are concerned. But what about third-party apps? Considering the amount of development work, will Snapchat or Facebook ever work as well with Bixby as Samsung's apps?
Rhee says Samsung has a plan to get third-party apps talking to Bixby, and an SDK to be released at a later date will introduce tools that make the mapping much easier. He also suggests Viv's technology can help here, too.
"Viv Labs is coming in by way expanding our vision into third-party ecosystems. It doesn't necessarily have to be all of the touch commands that they can perform. At a minimum, [Bixby will perform] the basic functionalities: like the settings, or changing the language from English to French."
On the Galaxy S8, a total of 10 apps will be Bixby-supported, Rhee says, with a second "wave" coming a few weeks later. Out of the gate, users will be able to use Bixby with Contacts, Gallery, Settings, Camera, Reminders and a few others.
Another way Bixby is different from its peers: it will be aware of what you're doing on the phone and suggest different actions depending on what's on screen. So if you press the button while, say, looking at a single photo in the Gallery, editing and sharing controls are probably more relevant to you than searching. And if Bixby doesn't understand every aspect of a complex command, it will take you as far as it can rather than just hitting you with a "Sorry, I didn't catch that."
All this "awareness" brings up an important question: How much data is Samsung collecting about you? Rhee says most user-specific data is kept on the device, but, as a cloud service, Bixby needs to store some information in the cloud. It's not yet clear what the exact breakdown is.
The button
Having a dedicated button for Bixby brings a number of advantages. For starters, it means Samsung won't have any need for Clippy-style pop-ups directing users to the assistant — people will inevitably find it on their own. It also ensures there will be far fewer accidental activations than if Bixby were mixed into a home button — something users of Siri are all too familiar with.
"We actually have done a lot of research to have the Bixby button as part of the home button like our friends in Cupertino," Rhee says. "A lot of people find it a little awkward to use it in public. The home button is a very overloaded place — there's a lot of functionality into it. Having a dedicated button really removes a lot of friction."
And since the idea is to press and hold, lifting your finger when you're done, Bixby will know definitively when you're done speaking. Still, there will also be a wake-up phrase — you can just say "Hi Bixby," to activate the assistant at any time.
It's the dedicated button that really epitomizes Samsung's approach, and if it indeed ends up on all Samsung products, Bixby will become much more than just a smartphone assistant — it'll become the gateway for Samsung to finally, truly become a major player in the internet of things.
Sure, Samsung has had its "Smart" devices for a long time, and its low-power Tizen OS is ideal for powering the many products with connections to the internet. It also acquired SmartThings in 2014 to strengthen its IoT brand.
But until now, Samsung has lacked a gateway for its customers to really take advantage of that interconnectivity. For most, it's hard work hunting down the right settings on your phone to connect a smart TV to an air conditioner, but what if you could just tell Bixby to do it? And if you can talk to it from all those devices — asking any question or even making phone calls — then you're really onto something.
"It's actually omnipresent in a sense," Rhee says. "Even if I speak to Bixby in, say, a washing machine, you can still do a lot of things that you do on your phone. For instance, you can say, 'Bixby, send a text to my friend Michael,' or 'Make a phone call.' That's the vision."
The more capable assistant
Amazon and Google already know this, and the success of Alexa and buzz around Home are a testament to the unquestionable efficiency of adding voice control to devices. But Samsung, with its high standard of controlling all functions of a device via Bixby, might end up with the advantage. Alexa, for all of its "skills," often falls short of full control (you can turn on or dim LED lights, for example, but might not be able to select specific colors), so the market has room for a more capable competitor. Of course, how and when Bixby will mix with third-party products and services remains an open question.
"Philosophically, what we are looking at is revolutionizing phone interfaces," Rhee says. "We understand our applications better than anybody else out there — that's why we started with our own technology, but going forward we have plans to work with our partners."
Eventually, Rhee says a Bixby app might come to non-Samsung Android phones and even iOS, possibly partnering with Google Assistant for search-related queries (though he cautions Google and Samsung haven't "gotten to the specifics" on how that would work).
At the same time, Bixby control could extend to all kinds of smart products, not just Samsung ones. That would probably take a level of cooperation with competitors that Samsung hasn't really shown before, but if Bixby becomes ubiquitous in the long term, whatever OS this or that device is running will become less relevant.
That's a future Samsung is clearly hoping for, since software has traditionally been its weakness. Samsung may be a chief Android partner, but it's struggled to differentiate its many services from Google's, and the company lacks an OS of its own (Tizen notwithstanding). Samsung's browser, Samsung Pay, S Health — they're all duplicates of Google products, and are widely regarded as inferior.
That's why Bixby may be the best thing to happen to Samsung software in a long time. If customers respond, Bixby could, in the long term, finally get Samsung users to think of its phones as Samsung phones rather than just the best-performing Android phones on the market. All Android vendors try to differentiate to some extent, but Bixby's app-simplifying skills and potential IoT capabilities are a compelling sell.
Bixby represents an important step for Samsung when it comes to services: finally a good answer to "Why should I use your software?" Effortless voice control of everything — not just your phone — is a tantalizing promise, and if Samsung can pull it off in the long term, its "bright sidekick" might end up being the only assistant we actually want to talk to.
Writer: PETE PACHAL
from Blogger Why Bixby will be the star of the Samsung Galaxy S8
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Samsung has a new voice. And it has world-changing ambitions.
Pressing it will activate Bixby, Samsung's new voice assistant. Once activated, Bixby will help you navigate what's arguably the most sophisticated piece of technology you own — the smartphone in your hand.
If Samsung gets its wish, though, Bixby will eventually do much more than just help you order Lyfts or set up complex calendar appointments. The long-term vision is for Bixby to act as a kind of uber-interface for all of Samsung's products: TVs, wearables, washing machines, even remote controls.
Samsung designed Bixby with a specific goal in mind, one that veers away from its fellow voice assistants — Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana and the Google Assistant. Those platforms were generally built to help users quickly perform common tasks ("Remind me to buy milk") and perform search queries ("What's the capital of Brazil?"). Bixby, on the other hand, is all about making the phone itself easier to use, replicating the functions of many apps with voice commands.
Yes, Siri et al. already do that to a certain extent — you can easily set a reminder with your voice, for example — but the voice integration typically only handles the basics. The goal of Bixby is to voice-enable every single action in an app that you'd normally do via touch, starting with Samsung's apps. So, not just "set a reminder to buy pickles at 6 p.m., but "Set a reminder on my Shopping List to buy pickles at 6 p.m. and make it repeat every week, then share the list with my wife."
Bixby speaks
Injong Rhee, CTO of Samsung Mobile and the architect behind Bixby, says the voice assistant is nothing short of an "interface revolution," freeing users from hunting down hidden functionality within menus and hard-to-find screens.
"Bixby is an intelligent user interface, emphasis... on 'interface,'" Rhee says. "A lot of agents are looking at being knowledgeable, meaning that you can ask questions like, 'Who's president of the U.S.?' A lot of these are glorified extensions of search. What we are doing with Bixby, and what Bixby is capable of doing, is developing a new interface to our devices."Although it makes its debut on the Galaxy S8, it will soon spread. Rhee sees the Bixby button eventually spreading to all kinds of smart-home devices, from TVs to refrigerators to air conditioners.
"Anywhere there is an internet connection and a microphone, Bixby can be used," he says. "There is some technology in the device, but a lot of it lives in the cloud. That's why the range of devices goes beyond just a smartphone. It means it can be in any device we produce."
Samsung began work on Bixby about 18 months ago, Rhee says. It grew out of the company's S Voice tool, which has been on Samsung phones since 2012. (The timing might explain why Samsung's smart fridge — announced right around then — failed to deliver on its planned integration with Alexa.) S Voice hadn't progressed much over the years, but then last year Samsung acquired the much-hyped Viv Labs and its sophisticated assistant, a strong indicator of the company's renewed interest in voice control. However, Rhee says Viv's technology is planned for future updates to Bixby and doesn't have a role in the initial release.
The name Bixby came out of Samsung's focus groups, but it was actually their third choice overall. It was the top pick among millennials — a demographic the company is specifically targeting with the Galaxy S8 — so it won out. (Rhee declined to say what the other names were.) It's also distinctive enough, with hard consonants, for it to work well as an activation word. Bixby, which will initially speak just English and Korean, is intended to be a user's "bright sidekick," helping them navigate their devices in a more natural way.
"[What came before], it's been people trying to learn how the machine interacts with the world, but... it should be the machine learns how the human interacts with the world," Rhee says. "The learning curve shouldn't be steep."
All talk, all action
For an app to be considered Bixby-supported, every possible touch action needs to be mapped to a voice command. Rhee explains that, for a typical app, there are about 300 different actions the user can perform. That doesn't sound too bad until you consider there are around 15,000 different ways to perform them. And the ways to verbalize those actions number in the millions. That's a lot of stuff to map out.
Still, Samsung says it's up for the challenge, at least as far as its built-in apps are concerned. But what about third-party apps? Considering the amount of development work, will Snapchat or Facebook ever work as well with Bixby as Samsung's apps?
Rhee says Samsung has a plan to get third-party apps talking to Bixby, and an SDK to be released at a later date will introduce tools that make the mapping much easier. He also suggests Viv's technology can help here, too.
"Viv Labs is coming in by way expanding our vision into third-party ecosystems. It doesn't necessarily have to be all of the touch commands that they can perform. At a minimum, [Bixby will perform] the basic functionalities: like the settings, or changing the language from English to French."
On the Galaxy S8, a total of 10 apps will be Bixby-supported, Rhee says, with a second "wave" coming a few weeks later. Out of the gate, users will be able to use Bixby with Contacts, Gallery, Settings, Camera, Reminders and a few others.
Another way Bixby is different from its peers: it will be aware of what you're doing on the phone and suggest different actions depending on what's on screen. So if you press the button while, say, looking at a single photo in the Gallery, editing and sharing controls are probably more relevant to you than searching. And if Bixby doesn't understand every aspect of a complex command, it will take you as far as it can rather than just hitting you with a "Sorry, I didn't catch that."
All this "awareness" brings up an important question: How much data is Samsung collecting about you? Rhee says most user-specific data is kept on the device, but, as a cloud service, Bixby needs to store some information in the cloud. It's not yet clear what the exact breakdown is.
The button
Having a dedicated button for Bixby brings a number of advantages. For starters, it means Samsung won't have any need for Clippy-style pop-ups directing users to the assistant — people will inevitably find it on their own. It also ensures there will be far fewer accidental activations than if Bixby were mixed into a home button — something users of Siri are all too familiar with.
"We actually have done a lot of research to have the Bixby button as part of the home button like our friends in Cupertino," Rhee says. "A lot of people find it a little awkward to use it in public. The home button is a very overloaded place — there's a lot of functionality into it. Having a dedicated button really removes a lot of friction."
And since the idea is to press and hold, lifting your finger when you're done, Bixby will know definitively when you're done speaking. Still, there will also be a wake-up phrase — you can just say "Hi Bixby," to activate the assistant at any time.
It's the dedicated button that really epitomizes Samsung's approach, and if it indeed ends up on all Samsung products, Bixby will become much more than just a smartphone assistant — it'll become the gateway for Samsung to finally, truly become a major player in the internet of things.
Sure, Samsung has had its "Smart" devices for a long time, and its low-power Tizen OS is ideal for powering the many products with connections to the internet. It also acquired SmartThings in 2014 to strengthen its IoT brand.
But until now, Samsung has lacked a gateway for its customers to really take advantage of that interconnectivity. For most, it's hard work hunting down the right settings on your phone to connect a smart TV to an air conditioner, but what if you could just tell Bixby to do it? And if you can talk to it from all those devices — asking any question or even making phone calls — then you're really onto something.
"It's actually omnipresent in a sense," Rhee says. "Even if I speak to Bixby in, say, a washing machine, you can still do a lot of things that you do on your phone. For instance, you can say, 'Bixby, send a text to my friend Michael,' or 'Make a phone call.' That's the vision."
The more capable assistant
Amazon and Google already know this, and the success of Alexa and buzz around Home are a testament to the unquestionable efficiency of adding voice control to devices. But Samsung, with its high standard of controlling all functions of a device via Bixby, might end up with the advantage. Alexa, for all of its "skills," often falls short of full control (you can turn on or dim LED lights, for example, but might not be able to select specific colors), so the market has room for a more capable competitor. Of course, how and when Bixby will mix with third-party products and services remains an open question.
"Philosophically, what we are looking at is revolutionizing phone interfaces," Rhee says. "We understand our applications better than anybody else out there — that's why we started with our own technology, but going forward we have plans to work with our partners."
Eventually, Rhee says a Bixby app might come to non-Samsung Android phones and even iOS, possibly partnering with Google Assistant for search-related queries (though he cautions Google and Samsung haven't "gotten to the specifics" on how that would work).
At the same time, Bixby control could extend to all kinds of smart products, not just Samsung ones. That would probably take a level of cooperation with competitors that Samsung hasn't really shown before, but if Bixby becomes ubiquitous in the long term, whatever OS this or that device is running will become less relevant.
That's a future Samsung is clearly hoping for, since software has traditionally been its weakness. Samsung may be a chief Android partner, but it's struggled to differentiate its many services from Google's, and the company lacks an OS of its own (Tizen notwithstanding). Samsung's browser, Samsung Pay, S Health — they're all duplicates of Google products, and are widely regarded as inferior.
That's why Bixby may be the best thing to happen to Samsung software in a long time. If customers respond, Bixby could, in the long term, finally get Samsung users to think of its phones as Samsung phones rather than just the best-performing Android phones on the market. All Android vendors try to differentiate to some extent, but Bixby's app-simplifying skills and potential IoT capabilities are a compelling sell.
Bixby represents an important step for Samsung when it comes to services: finally a good answer to "Why should I use your software?" Effortless voice control of everything — not just your phone — is a tantalizing promise, and if Samsung can pull it off in the long term, its "bright sidekick" might end up being the only assistant we actually want to talk to.
Writer: PETE PACHAL
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Samsung has a new voice. And it has world-changing ambitions.
Pressing it will activate Bixby, Samsung's new voice assistant. Once activated, Bixby will help you navigate what's arguably the most sophisticated piece of technology you own — the smartphone in your hand.
If Samsung gets its wish, though, Bixby will eventually do much more than just help you order Lyfts or set up complex calendar appointments. The long-term vision is for Bixby to act as a kind of uber-interface for all of Samsung's products: TVs, wearables, washing machines, even remote controls.
Samsung designed Bixby with a specific goal in mind, one that veers away from its fellow voice assistants — Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana and the Google Assistant. Those platforms were generally built to help users quickly perform common tasks ("Remind me to buy milk") and perform search queries ("What's the capital of Brazil?"). Bixby, on the other hand, is all about making the phone itself easier to use, replicating the functions of many apps with voice commands.
Yes, Siri et al. already do that to a certain extent — you can easily set a reminder with your voice, for example — but the voice integration typically only handles the basics. The goal of Bixby is to voice-enable every single action in an app that you'd normally do via touch, starting with Samsung's apps. So, not just "set a reminder to buy pickles at 6 p.m., but "Set a reminder on my Shopping List to buy pickles at 6 p.m. and make it repeat every week, then share the list with my wife."
Bixby speaks
Injong Rhee, CTO of Samsung Mobile and the architect behind Bixby, says the voice assistant is nothing short of an "interface revolution," freeing users from hunting down hidden functionality within menus and hard-to-find screens.
"Bixby is an intelligent user interface, emphasis... on 'interface,'" Rhee says. "A lot of agents are looking at being knowledgeable, meaning that you can ask questions like, 'Who's president of the U.S.?' A lot of these are glorified extensions of search. What we are doing with Bixby, and what Bixby is capable of doing, is developing a new interface to our devices."Although it makes its debut on the Galaxy S8, it will soon spread. Rhee sees the Bixby button eventually spreading to all kinds of smart-home devices, from TVs to refrigerators to air conditioners.
"Anywhere there is an internet connection and a microphone, Bixby can be used," he says. "There is some technology in the device, but a lot of it lives in the cloud. That's why the range of devices goes beyond just a smartphone. It means it can be in any device we produce."
Samsung began work on Bixby about 18 months ago, Rhee says. It grew out of the company's S Voice tool, which has been on Samsung phones since 2012. (The timing might explain why Samsung's smart fridge — announced right around then — failed to deliver on its planned integration with Alexa.) S Voice hadn't progressed much over the years, but then last year Samsung acquired the much-hyped Viv Labs and its sophisticated assistant, a strong indicator of the company's renewed interest in voice control. However, Rhee says Viv's technology is planned for future updates to Bixby and doesn't have a role in the initial release.
The name Bixby came out of Samsung's focus groups, but it was actually their third choice overall. It was the top pick among millennials — a demographic the company is specifically targeting with the Galaxy S8 — so it won out. (Rhee declined to say what the other names were.) It's also distinctive enough, with hard consonants, for it to work well as an activation word. Bixby, which will initially speak just English and Korean, is intended to be a user's "bright sidekick," helping them navigate their devices in a more natural way.
"[What came before], it's been people trying to learn how the machine interacts with the world, but... it should be the machine learns how the human interacts with the world," Rhee says. "The learning curve shouldn't be steep."
All talk, all action
For an app to be considered Bixby-supported, every possible touch action needs to be mapped to a voice command. Rhee explains that, for a typical app, there are about 300 different actions the user can perform. That doesn't sound too bad until you consider there are around 15,000 different ways to perform them. And the ways to verbalize those actions number in the millions. That's a lot of stuff to map out.
Still, Samsung says it's up for the challenge, at least as far as its built-in apps are concerned. But what about third-party apps? Considering the amount of development work, will Snapchat or Facebook ever work as well with Bixby as Samsung's apps?
Rhee says Samsung has a plan to get third-party apps talking to Bixby, and an SDK to be released at a later date will introduce tools that make the mapping much easier. He also suggests Viv's technology can help here, too.
"Viv Labs is coming in by way expanding our vision into third-party ecosystems. It doesn't necessarily have to be all of the touch commands that they can perform. At a minimum, [Bixby will perform] the basic functionalities: like the settings, or changing the language from English to French."
On the Galaxy S8, a total of 10 apps will be Bixby-supported, Rhee says, with a second "wave" coming a few weeks later. Out of the gate, users will be able to use Bixby with Contacts, Gallery, Settings, Camera, Reminders and a few others.
Another way Bixby is different from its peers: it will be aware of what you're doing on the phone and suggest different actions depending on what's on screen. So if you press the button while, say, looking at a single photo in the Gallery, editing and sharing controls are probably more relevant to you than searching. And if Bixby doesn't understand every aspect of a complex command, it will take you as far as it can rather than just hitting you with a "Sorry, I didn't catch that."
All this "awareness" brings up an important question: How much data is Samsung collecting about you? Rhee says most user-specific data is kept on the device, but, as a cloud service, Bixby needs to store some information in the cloud. It's not yet clear what the exact breakdown is.
The button
Having a dedicated button for Bixby brings a number of advantages. For starters, it means Samsung won't have any need for Clippy-style pop-ups directing users to the assistant — people will inevitably find it on their own. It also ensures there will be far fewer accidental activations than if Bixby were mixed into a home button — something users of Siri are all too familiar with.
"We actually have done a lot of research to have the Bixby button as part of the home button like our friends in Cupertino," Rhee says. "A lot of people find it a little awkward to use it in public. The home button is a very overloaded place — there's a lot of functionality into it. Having a dedicated button really removes a lot of friction."
And since the idea is to press and hold, lifting your finger when you're done, Bixby will know definitively when you're done speaking. Still, there will also be a wake-up phrase — you can just say "Hi Bixby," to activate the assistant at any time.
It's the dedicated button that really epitomizes Samsung's approach, and if it indeed ends up on all Samsung products, Bixby will become much more than just a smartphone assistant — it'll become the gateway for Samsung to finally, truly become a major player in the internet of things.
Sure, Samsung has had its "Smart" devices for a long time, and its low-power Tizen OS is ideal for powering the many products with connections to the internet. It also acquired SmartThings in 2014 to strengthen its IoT brand.
But until now, Samsung has lacked a gateway for its customers to really take advantage of that interconnectivity. For most, it's hard work hunting down the right settings on your phone to connect a smart TV to an air conditioner, but what if you could just tell Bixby to do it? And if you can talk to it from all those devices — asking any question or even making phone calls — then you're really onto something.
"It's actually omnipresent in a sense," Rhee says. "Even if I speak to Bixby in, say, a washing machine, you can still do a lot of things that you do on your phone. For instance, you can say, 'Bixby, send a text to my friend Michael,' or 'Make a phone call.' That's the vision."
The more capable assistant
Amazon and Google already know this, and the success of Alexa and buzz around Home are a testament to the unquestionable efficiency of adding voice control to devices. But Samsung, with its high standard of controlling all functions of a device via Bixby, might end up with the advantage. Alexa, for all of its "skills," often falls short of full control (you can turn on or dim LED lights, for example, but might not be able to select specific colors), so the market has room for a more capable competitor. Of course, how and when Bixby will mix with third-party products and services remains an open question.
"Philosophically, what we are looking at is revolutionizing phone interfaces," Rhee says. "We understand our applications better than anybody else out there — that's why we started with our own technology, but going forward we have plans to work with our partners."
Eventually, Rhee says a Bixby app might come to non-Samsung Android phones and even iOS, possibly partnering with Google Assistant for search-related queries (though he cautions Google and Samsung haven't "gotten to the specifics" on how that would work).
At the same time, Bixby control could extend to all kinds of smart products, not just Samsung ones. That would probably take a level of cooperation with competitors that Samsung hasn't really shown before, but if Bixby becomes ubiquitous in the long term, whatever OS this or that device is running will become less relevant.
That's a future Samsung is clearly hoping for, since software has traditionally been its weakness. Samsung may be a chief Android partner, but it's struggled to differentiate its many services from Google's, and the company lacks an OS of its own (Tizen notwithstanding). Samsung's browser, Samsung Pay, S Health — they're all duplicates of Google products, and are widely regarded as inferior.
That's why Bixby may be the best thing to happen to Samsung software in a long time. If customers respond, Bixby could, in the long term, finally get Samsung users to think of its phones as Samsung phones rather than just the best-performing Android phones on the market. All Android vendors try to differentiate to some extent, but Bixby's app-simplifying skills and potential IoT capabilities are a compelling sell.
Bixby represents an important step for Samsung when it comes to services: finally a good answer to "Why should I use your software?" Effortless voice control of everything — not just your phone — is a tantalizing promise, and if Samsung can pull it off in the long term, its "bright sidekick" might end up being the only assistant we actually want to talk to.
Writer: PETE PACHAL
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Say hi to Samsung Bixby, the new voice assistant in the Galaxy S8 Samsung has a new voice. And it has world-changing ambitions. In the upcoming Galaxy S8, users will find an extra button on the left side of the phone, just below the volume controls. Pressing it will activate Bixby, Samsung's new voice assistant. Once activated, Bixby will help you navigate what's arguably the most sophisticated piece of technology you own — the smartphone in your hand. If Samsung gets its wish, though, Bixby will eventually do much more than just help you order Lyfts or set up complex calendar appointments. The long-term vision is for Bixby to act as a kind of uber-interface for all of Samsung's products: TVs, wearables, washing machines, even remote controls. SEE ALSO: Samsung Galaxy S8: all the leaks in one place Samsung designed Bixby with a specific goal in mind, one that veers away from its fellow voice assistants — Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana and the Google Assistant. Those platforms were generally built to help users quickly perform common tasks ("Remind me to buy milk") and perform search queries ("What's the capital of Brazil?"). Bixby, on the other hand, is all about making the phone itself easier to use, replicating the functions of many apps with voice commands. Yes, Siri et al. already do that to a certain extent — you can easily set a reminder with your voice, for example — but the voice integration typically only handles the basics. The goal of Bixby is to voice-enable every single action in an app that you'd normally do via touch, starting with Samsung's apps. So, not just "set a reminder to buy pickles at 6 p.m., but "Set a reminder on my Shopping List to buy pickles at 6 p.m. and make it repeat every week, then share the list with my wife." Bixby speaks Injong Rhee, CTO of Samsung Mobile and the architect behind Bixby, says the voice assistant is nothing short of an "interface revolution," freeing users from hunting down hidden functionality within menus and hard-to-find screens. "Bixby is an intelligent user interface, emphasis... on 'interface,'" Rhee says. "A lot of agents are looking at being knowledgeable, meaning that you can ask questions like, 'Who's president of the U.S.?' A lot of these are glorified extensions of search. What we are doing with Bixby, and what Bixby is capable of doing, is developing a new interface to our devices." Bixby architect Injong Rhee, CTO of Samsung Mobile. Image: Pete Pachal/Mashable Although it makes its debut on the Galaxy S8, it will soon spread. Rhee sees the Bixby button eventually spreading to all kinds of smart-home devices, from TVs to refrigerators to air conditioners. "Anywhere there is an internet connection and a microphone, Bixby can be used," he says. "There is some technology in the device, but a lot of it lives in the cloud. That's why the range of devices goes beyond just a smartphone. It means it can be in any device we produce." Samsung began work on Bixby about 18 months ago, Rhee says. It grew out of the company's S Voice tool, which has been on Samsung phones since 2012. (The timing might explain why Samsung's smart fridge — announced right around then — failed to deliver on its planned integration with Alexa.) S Voice hadn't progressed much over the years, but then last year Samsung acquired the much-hyped Viv Labs and its sophisticated assistant, a strong indicator of the company's renewed interest in voice control. However, Rhee says Viv's technology is planned for future updates to Bixby and doesn't have a role in the initial release. The name Bixby came out of Samsung's focus groups, but it was actually their third choice overall. It was the top pick among millennials — a demographic the company is specifically targeting with the Galaxy S8 — so it won out. (Rhee declined to say what the other names were.) It's also distinctive enough, with hard consonants, for it to work well as an activation word. Bixby, which will initially speak just English and Korean, is intended to be a user's "bright sidekick," helping them navigate their devices in a more natural way. "[What came before], it's been people trying to learn how the machine interacts with the world, but... it should be the machine learns how the human interacts with the world," Rhee says. "The learning curve shouldn't be steep." All talk, all action For an app to be considered Bixby-supported, every possible touch action needs to be mapped to a voice command. Rhee explains that, for a typical app, there are about 300 different actions the user can perform. That doesn't sound too bad until you consider there are around 15,000 different ways to perform them. And the ways to verbalize those actions number in the millions. That's a lot of stuff to map out. Still, Samsung says it's up for the challenge, at least as far as its built-in apps are concerned. But what about third-party apps? Considering the amount of development work, will Snapchat or Facebook ever work as well with Bixby as Samsung's apps? Rhee says Samsung has a plan to get third-party apps talking to Bixby, and an SDK to be released at a later date will introduce tools that make the mapping much easier. He also suggests Viv's technology can help here, too. "Viv Labs is coming in by way expanding our vision into third-party ecosystems. It doesn't necessarily have to be all of the touch commands that they can perform. At a minimum, [Bixby will perform] the basic functionalities: like the settings, or changing the language from English to French." On the Galaxy S8, a total of 10 apps will be Bixby-supported, Rhee says, with a second "wave" coming a few weeks later. Out of the gate, users will be able to use Bixby with Contacts, Gallery, Settings, Camera, Reminders and a few others. Another way Bixby is different from its peers: it will be aware of what you're doing on the phone and suggest different actions depending on what's on screen. So if you press the button while, say, looking at a single photo in the Gallery, editing and sharing controls are probably more relevant to you than searching. And if Bixby doesn't understand every aspect of a complex command, it will take you as far as it can rather than just hitting you with a "Sorry, I didn't catch that." All this "awareness" brings up an important question: How much data is Samsung collecting about you? Rhee says most user-specific data is kept on the device, but, as a cloud service, Bixby needs to store some information in the cloud. It's not yet clear what the exact breakdown is. The button Having a dedicated button for Bixby brings a number of advantages. For starters, it means Samsung won't have any need for Clippy-style pop-ups directing users to the assistant — people will inevitably find it on their own. It also ensures there will be far fewer accidental activations than if Bixby were mixed into a home button — something users of Siri are all too familiar with. "We actually have done a lot of research to have the Bixby button as part of the home button like our friends in Cupertino," Rhee says. "A lot of people find it a little awkward to use it in public. The home button is a very overloaded place — there's a lot of functionality into it. Having a dedicated button really removes a lot of friction." And since the idea is to press and hold, lifting your finger when you're done, Bixby will know definitively when you're done speaking. Still, there will also be a wake-up phrase — you can just say "Hi Bixby," to activate the assistant at any time. It's the dedicated button that really epitomizes Samsung's approach, and if it indeed ends up on all Samsung products, Bixby will become much more than just a smartphone assistant — it'll become the gateway for Samsung to finally, truly become a major player in the internet of things. Sure, Samsung has had its "Smart" devices for a long time, and its low-power Tizen OS is ideal for powering the many products with connections to the internet. It also acquired SmartThings in 2014 to strengthen its IoT brand. But until now, Samsung has lacked a gateway for its customers to really take advantage of that interconnectivity. For most, it's hard work hunting down the right settings on your phone to connect a smart TV to an air conditioner, but what if you could just tell Bixby to do it? And if you can talk to it from all those devices — asking any question or even making phone calls — then you're really onto something. "It's actually omnipresent in a sense," Rhee says. "Even if I speak to Bixby in, say, a washing machine, you can still do a lot of things that you do on your phone. For instance, you can say, 'Bixby, send a text to my friend Michael,' or 'Make a phone call.' That's the vision." The more capable assistant Amazon and Google already know this, and the success of Alexa and buzz around Home are a testament to the unquestionable efficiency of adding voice control to devices. But Samsung, with its high standard of controlling all functions of a device via Bixby, might end up with the advantage. Alexa, for all of its "skills," often falls short of full control (you can turn on or dim LED lights, for example, but might not be able to select specific colors), so the market has room for a more capable competitor. Of course, how and when Bixby will mix with third-party products and services remains an open question. "Philosophically, what we are looking at is revolutionizing phone interfaces," Rhee says. "We understand our applications better than anybody else out there — that's why we started with our own technology, but going forward we have plans to work with our partners." Eventually, Rhee says a Bixby app might come to non-Samsung Android phones and even iOS, possibly partnering with Google Assistant for search-related queries (though he cautions Google and Samsung haven't "gotten to the specifics" on how that would work). At the same time, Bixby control could extend to all kinds of smart products, not just Samsung ones. That would probably take a level of cooperation with competitors that Samsung hasn't really shown before, but if Bixby becomes ubiquitous in the long term, whatever OS this or that device is running will become less relevant. That's a future Samsung is clearly hoping for, since software has traditionally been its weakness. Samsung may be a chief Android partner, but it's struggled to differentiate its many services from Google's, and the company lacks an OS of its own (Tizen notwithstanding). Samsung's browser, Samsung Pay, S Health — they're all duplicates of Google products, and are widely regarded as inferior. That's why Bixby may be the best thing to happen to Samsung software in a long time. If customers respond, Bixby could, in the long term, finally get Samsung users to think of its phones as Samsung phones rather than just the best-performing Android phones on the market. All Android vendors try to differentiate to some extent, but Bixby's app-simplifying skills and potential IoT capabilities are a compelling sell. Bixby represents an important step for Samsung when it comes to services: finally a good answer to "Why should I use your software?" Effortless voice control of everything — not just your phone — is a tantalizing promise, and if Samsung can pull it off in the long term, its "bright sidekick" might end up being the only assistant we actually want to talk to. WATCH: Samsung's wireless earbuds double as a fitness-tracker http://ift.tt/2ml5hpQ By Samy Morsy
from I.T MAN http://ift.tt/1cjthd7 via IFTTTBy Samy Morsy
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